About time- but still, I'm glad
Sixty years ago, Lena Baker died in Georgia's electric chair for the murder of a white man whom Lena, his maid, said held her in slavery and in fear of her life long after the end of the Civil War.
Monday the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles announced that even though it could not exonerate her of the killing of E.B. Knight, who had forced her against her will in a grist mill and threatened to shoot her if she tried to leave, her execution was unjust, and granted her a posthumous pardon.
On one hand, it comes a bit late. On the other hand, as Roosevelt Curry, her grandnephew, said Monday, "I believe she's somewhere around God's throne and can look down and smile."
Theologically, I don't know about that second part. But what can be done at this point to right an injustice has been done, and maybe God has let Lena in on the news.
Monday the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles announced that even though it could not exonerate her of the killing of E.B. Knight, who had forced her against her will in a grist mill and threatened to shoot her if she tried to leave, her execution was unjust, and granted her a posthumous pardon.
On one hand, it comes a bit late. On the other hand, as Roosevelt Curry, her grandnephew, said Monday, "I believe she's somewhere around God's throne and can look down and smile."
Theologically, I don't know about that second part. But what can be done at this point to right an injustice has been done, and maybe God has let Lena in on the news.
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