Nationally known civil rights advocate Cornel West spoke Thursday evening on the campus of Texas Tech University. During a presentation in the Allen Theatre, West discussed what has and has not changed for black Americans and other racial minorities during Barack Obama’s presidency.
West also made a stop by the Tim Cole memorial at 19th Street and University Avenue on Thursday afternoon. Cole died in prison after he was wrongfully convicted of rape in Lubbock County. His case led to statewide reforms.
“It’s a beautiful thing to see people who care,” West said in front of the Cole memorial.
“The criminal justice system – too often it doesn’t do the right thing,” West said while still speaking of the Cole case. “It’s beautiful to see that in an instance when it didn’t do the right thing, at least there is some exoneration.”
West also spoke of what he calls “mass incarceration.”
Wikipedia reported that as of October 2013, the incarceration rate of the United States of America was the highest in the world at 716 per 100,000.
When asked if mass incarceration could be stopped, West said, “Oh, no doubt it can be done. It’s just a matter of will.”
“It’s a matter of being vigilant. It’s a matter of people having courage and the compassion to stand up for change,” West said.
West said it took a coalition of people coming from all skin colors to stop Jim Crow laws in Texas and other places. Jim Crow laws forced racial segregation and were repealed and/or found to be unconstitutional in the 1960’s.
“That tradition [of working together] has to stay alive if Texas is to be what it ought to be,” West said.
