Voices of the black spring.

• Author: Conniff, Ruth
• Position: Editor's Note - Editorial

Kevin Alexander Gray called our offices just after the terrible video surfaced of Walter Scott being shot in the back, repeatedly, as he fled the police in Gray's home state of South Carolina.

A "snuff film," Gray called that video, and he wondered aloud about the effect of watching the footage over and over, with its deep, disturbing historical associations--of a fleeing slave and pursuing overseer, or a civil rights worker running from the Klan.

His essay on the subject appears on Page 17. Gray has been in the trenches of the civil-rights struggle for many years. He ran Jesse Jackson's 1988 Presidential campaign in South Carolina, and he is the author of many deeply thoughtful essays and books. We are honored to publish him in The Progressive.

Fred McKissack Jr., who wrote the gorgeous personal essay in our December/January issue, "Goodbye, St. Louis," writes our Comment this month, connecting the thirtieth anniversary of the police bombing of the black liberation group MOVE to the police-state tactics used against African Americans today. As Fred filed his piece, residents of Baltimore were celebrating the decision to charge six police officers in the death of Freddie Gray, and across the country people marched for what activists are calling the Black Spring.

David Couper, who back in the 1970s transformed a backward police department in Madison into a more responsive, respectful, and peaceful force, contributes his thoughts on what it takes to make meaningful change in this issue. Today, Couper is worried about the huge escalation in military weaponry and tactics on local forces around the country. On Page 14, he outlines his ideas...