As a popular Black actor steps out onto the street, two racist white thugs lay in wait with a noose. He is attacked — with bleached poured on him and a noose strung around his neck — as the white supremacists hurl abuse and shout their support for former President Donald Trump.
That was the story that then-Sen. Kamala Harris told voters after Jussie Smollett reported to Chicago police that he was the victim of a hate crime.
Harris said it was an “attempt at a modern day lynching” and a shocking reminder that hateful white supremacists lay in wait around every corner.
Nearly three years later, Smollett is about to stand trial on charges that he staged the attack with the help of two friends — and Harris has been very quiet about the incident in the days leading up to Smollett’s trial.
Perhaps she thought voters would forget.
But The Horn News remembers — and the Harris flashback moment is going viral.
.@JussieSmollett is one of the kindest, most gentle human beings I know. I’m praying for his quick recovery.
This was an attempted modern day lynching. No one should have to fear for their life because of their sexuality or color of their skin. We must confront this hate.
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) January 29, 2019
Smollett was charged with felony disorderly conduct after law enforcement and prosecutors said he lied to police about what happened in the early morning hours of Jan. 29, 2019, in downtown Chicago. He has pleaded not guilty. Jury selection is scheduled to begin Monday.
Disorderly conduct, a class 4 felony, carries a sentence of up to three years in prison but experts have said it is more likely that if Smollett is convicted he would be placed on probation and perhaps ordered to perform community service.
Smollett told police he was walking home from a Subway sandwich shop at 2 a.m. when two men he said recognized him from the TV show “Empire” began hurling racist and homophobic slurs at him. He said the men struck him, looped a noose around his neck and shouted, “This is MAGA country,” a reference to Trump’s campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again.”
Reaction to his reported assault underscored the increasingly polarized political landscape; Democratic politicians like Harris and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called it a shocking example of Trump-era bigotry and hate. Republicans accused liberals of rushing to judgment despite the obvious holes in the story.
https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1090491674575454208
Days later police charged Smollett with staging the attack to further his career and secure a higher salary. And, police said, he hired two brothers from Nigeria to pretend to attack him for $3,500.
This made the spotlight on Smollett shine even brighter, but this time he was vilified as someone willing to use one of the most potent symbol of racism in the U.S. to further his career.
“The most vile and despicable part of it, if it’s true, is the noose,” Judge John Fitzgerald Lyke Jr., who is Black, said during Smollett’s first court appearance. “That symbol conjures up such evil in this country’s history.”
Smollett also became a national punch line. He was the subject of a “Saturday Night Live” skit and a host of Black celebrities, from NBA analyst Charles Barkley to comedian Dave Chappelle, took turns poking fun at him.
Then came the anger that Smollett’s fame accorded him favors with Democratic insiders that is out of reach for most. Reports indicated Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, at the request of former first lady Michelle Obama’s onetime chief of staff, communicated with a member of Smollett’s family early in the investigation. Foxx recused herself from the case then her office suddenly dropped the charges, and Foxx found herself at the center of a media firestorm as she refuted the suggestion that her office gave the television star a break.
All that set the stage for what turned a simple question of Smollett’s innocence or guilt into a convoluted legal saga that has dragged on for nearly three years.
The trial was delayed in part because of the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought cases around the country to a halt for months. But also, charges were filed, dropped, and filed again by a special prosecutor who was brought in to take over the case.
Smollett — whose career has since faded — will this week return to the glare of the media spotlight, but this time as he passes the forest of news cameras as he makes his way to and from court.
The producers of “Empire,” on which he starred for four years, renewed his contract for the sixth and final season in 2019, but he never appeared in an episode. Nor has he released any music or given significant musical performances.
He has, however, directed an independent film, funded by his own production company, that is premiering at the American Black Film Festival this month. The movie, “B-Boy Blues” is an adaptation of a 1994 novel, the first in a series, about the lives of gay Black men in New York.
But once in court, what will unfold will be what may sound like a bad movie for the simple reason that a short movie is exactly what authorities have long maintained Smollett was trying to create.
Key witnesses will be the brothers, Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo, who say Smollett wrote them a check to stage the attack. They are expected to characterize Smollett as the star and director of an “attack” in full view of a surveillance camera that he mistakenly believed would record the whole event.
And, according to their lawyer, the brothers will also describe how Smollett drove them to the spot where the incident was to play out for a “dress rehearsal.”
“He was telling them ‘Here’s a camera, there’s a camera and here’s where you are going to run away,’” said their lawyer, Gloria Rodriguez.
[WATCH] Chicago police release Jussie Smollett video
The Associated Press contributed to this article