On The Mark: Violence against Black Americans has deep roots through history

Why are African Americans so often the victims of police killings? A history of enslavement, violence-enforced exploitation and often killing labor, followed by decades of industrial exploitation and residential segregation are succinct explanations, though not enough. It’s difficult to face and accept that our country was built on enslavement and brutal field work, enforced with beatings, lynchings, imprisonment, and death. And that our nation’s economic prowess emerged from the work that enslaved Black men, women and children performed for centuries. Here’s a too-brief summary.

From the 16th...