“It certainly is overdue and should have been done a long time ago,” said Doug Denison, spokesman for the Delaware Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs (DDHCA).
The last use of a spanking station in Delaware was in 1952, according to the state.
This post was used to spank people as young as 10 years old, and was used on some black and white men who committed theft or other crimes. If the women were flogged, they were only black women, said David Young, executive director of the Delaware Historical Society.
Delaware was the last state to abolish the use of a spanking station, and the penalty was not removed from state law until 1972, according to a DDHCA press release.
The post was installed on the public court grounds in 1993. It will be moved and placed in a storage facility with other historical objects and artifacts. This is the last Delaware smoothie post to be removed.
The shake station was originally located on the grounds of the Sussex Correctional Institution south of Georgetown, according to a press release. Although the facility was established in 1931, it is unknown when this publication was installed.
“The decision to remove the spanking post was made in response to calls from the community and in recognition of the violence and racial discrimination that its display meant to many Delawareers,” the state press release said.
For a single crime, people could be spanked up to 40 times. The flogging was part of the show punishment used in Delaware at the time, Young said.
“I know people who have seen people spanked in that post and have never forgotten it,” Young said.
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