Greg Wilson, Special to the USA TODAY NETWORK Published 3:02 p.m. ET June 30, 2020 | Updated 8:33 p.m. ET June 30, 2020

In one month, the Black Lives Matter protests that followed the killing of George Floyd in Minnesota transformed our national debate. The protests moved beyond a call for an end to white police officers killing unarmed black men to calls for sweeping criminal justice system reform.

As our new national debate informs officials to remove Confederate statues and flags from public squares and NASCAR races, contemporary symbols of police brutality are falling as well. In Philadelphia, the statue of Mayor Frank Rizzo known for his indulgence of police brutality toward minorities was removed out of concern for public safety. In Georgetown, Delaware, a monument to the states own peculiar institution the whipping post is finally being seen for thesavagery it represents and removed.

Sociologist Robert Graham Caldwell in his 1947 book, "Red Hannah: Delawares Whipping Post," chronicled Delawares years of corporal punishment from the mid-1600s through the mid-20th century. Caldwell found between 1900 and 1942 more than 1,600 prisoners were publicly whipped, 66.2 percent were negroes, 65.8 percent were either unskilled laborers or farm hands. For those four decades, African Americans comprised just 16 percent of the states population.

While millions of Americans saw police brutality meted out to George Floyd for allegedly passing a counterfeit$20bill, Delawareans for over 200 years watched prisoners whipped for theft of property of very little value ... less than $10, or for simply stealing chickens.Caldwells research and data shattered myths held by whipping postproponents. He found the post did not deter crime, or reduce recidivism or incarceration.

Delaware reminded free people of color that brutality and white supremacy still reigned seven months after the Civil War ended, when Sarah E. Robinson, an African-American woman, was convicted of larceny. She was whipped with twenty lashes and sold for 5 cents into servitude for seven years.

The whipping posts and public floggings in each of Delawares three counties sullied the states reputation nationwide for decades. In 1912,theSan Francisco Startook Delaware to task for whipping prisoners: In a cruelty that is of the past, she stands alone, and is ashamed in her loneliness. She should awake ... and move forward among those who happily have discarded the ways of savagery. As it is, she earns not only startled wonder, but contempt as well.

In 1931, playwright George Bernard Shaw wrote theNew York Times, in America, the frightfully long periods of solitary confinement and Delawares flogging suggest the civilization of fiends rather than human beings.

In 1935, the warden of the New Castle County Workhouse, Elmer Leach, described the whipping post as a barbaric relic of the past.

Thelast public whipping took place on June 16, 1952. It wasnt until 1972that Republican Gov. Russell Peterson and the Delaware legislature finally removed the whipping post from the Delaware criminal code.

In 1993, the Georgetown Historical Society in Delaware dedicated a whipping post for public display just off the town square. The text on the marker for the post is misleading. While it is accurate on the number of lashes for larceny, it states: During the 1840s many people thought the laws concerning the whipping post should be looked at. In reality, Delawareans fought to abolish the whipping post for over 150 years.

The marker also leaves the impression that the last time a person was whipped in Sussex County was in 1906.In fact, a person was whipped in Sussex County in 1942, for stealing a tire.And the last time a person was whipped in Kent and Sussex Counties happened in 1950.

Dover resident Dr. Reba Hollingsworth remembers the Kent County whipping she witnessed in the late 1930s.

They whipped people on Saturdays, generally, said the 93-year-old woman of color.

She said the white man convicted of stealing chickens, was already chained when I got there.

Her most distinct memory:there was a big crowd ... they were quiet ... I remember the sound of the lash.

When asked about the whipping post and Confederate statues, the former school counselor said, Whipping posts and Confederate monuments should be taken out of the public square, and so we do not forget the history, put into museums.

On Wednesday, the whipping post will finally be removed from public view in Georgetown.

"Now is the time for doing this, said Tim Slavin, director, Delaware Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs, and shame on us for not doing it sooner."

George Floyds death, countless other deaths from over-policing, and the whipping post in Georgetown remind all Americans how unequal treatment under the law isnt a new trend by any means; its been around for centuries.

A whipping post stands outside the Old Courthouse in Georgetown.(Photo: WILLIAM BRETZGER, DELAWARE NEWS JOURNAL)

Which is why Delawares Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs should work with the state board of education to review how Delaware schools teach race relations, and develop new lesson plans pertaining to corporal punishment, criminal justice reform and Red Hannah.

Delawareans need to know why removing the whipping post matters.

Greg Wilson is a consultant and lives in Wilmington.

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Why removing the whipping post is important for Delaware | Opinion - The News Journal