George Junius Stinney, Jr. was 14 years old. George Junius Stinney weighed about 95 pounds. George Stinney, Jr. was a little black boy. George Stinney was accused of murdering two white girls. George was coerced with trickery and an ice cream cone into saying he did it. At least it was said that he said he did it. There was no record of any confession. They decided on his life in 10 minutes. George didn’t know. George didn’t know. George didn’t know what the grown-ass men surrounding him were capable of. George spent over 80 days in jail away from his family. They ran George’s family away. He never saw them again. The grown-ass men killed George. The United States by way of South Carolina, specifically Columbia, electrocuted a scared innocent 14 year black boy…and the real perpetrator got away. George died for his sins. Since Jesus died for sins. Is George like Jesus? They say Jesus came back. Does George get to come back
When they electrocuted little Georgie, he had no idea what they were about to do. He was so scared he could barely talk. Them grown-ass men took Georgie to that death chamber and since he wasn’t big enough to reach the headpiece, they sat him on a bible. Just boosted up that little black boy with the word of god to get him a little closer to death. Georgie sat right on top of that book of life, waiting for them grown-ass men to try and fit that too big mask on his little head. His skinny little body was shaking like a leftover leaf in winter. Except it was summer when they murdered Georgie. Actually it was late spring. June 16th to be exact. Hey that’s Tupac Shakur’s bearthday. He was murdered too. His killers went free too. He was betrayed too…like Jesus. Was Tupac like Jesus? Was Jesus like Tupac? Jesus came back. Tupac might have been Jesus. Damn, they killed him again. Hail Mary, come quick see/Hail Mary, come with me…” Those are Tupac’s lyrics. “Ya’ll waiting on me like ya’ll waiting for Jesus to come back.” Tupac said that too. He was on a cross on the cover of his final CD, crucified just like Jesus. If Jesus was Tupac, would people pray to Tupac? Would white people pray to a god that didn’t look like them?
Remember the ice cream cone Georgie was licking on while following the grown-ass men down the concreted hall with no idea what was happening or where he was going? That was kind of like his last supper before the death knell. Jesus has a last supper. Perhaps it was better that ice cream. Jesus had his homies around him. Georgie had grown-ass men with ill intent. It appears Georgie had it worse. Jesus got to wear his own clothes. They put Georgie in prison stripes. “…and by his stripes we are healed” (Matthew 53:5) Was that verse about Jesus or Georgie? I’m leaning toward Georgie. I wonder if they’ll paint Georgie white one day, put some blue eyes in his head, and write a holy book with him in it.
When the grown-ass man pulled that lever with that cold clinking sound and that hot electricity hit George’s little body, that made-for-grown-criminals-not-for-innocent-little-boys, death mask popped right off Georgie’s head. His eyes were bucked wide open running over with tears. Clear liquid ran down the corner of his mouth and dripped onto his stripes. You know, the ones we are healed by. And what did the grown-ass men do. Slid that mask right back on that boy’s head and finished killing him.
I wonder if anybody said, “it is finished.” Georgie died by electric chair in 1944, in Columbia, South Carolina. The youngest to die by capital punishment. Convicted of first degree murder. In 2014, George Junius Stinney, Jr’s status was vacated. Does that mean Georgie gets to come back?
Notes of A Native Son 