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Read Ebook: The Fight Against Lynching Anti-Lynching Work of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People for the Year Nineteen Eighteen by National Association For The Advancement Of Colored People
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Ebook has 506 lines and 32698 words, and 11 pages
TAKEN FROM PEACE OFFICERS AND JAILS
Our records show the following number of cases of lynchings of Negroes in which the victim was taken from officers or jails:
INNOCENCE ADMITTED PUBLICLY
In three cases of which we have record the press has spoken of the innocence of victims; one of these involved three persons, another the ten victims of Brooks and Lowndes Counties mobs . In another case it is the common belief in the community in which a Negro was lynched for "killing a white woman" that the husband of the woman was himself the murderer. No charge has been brought against him, however, by the authorities. In such cases, Negroes are usually too fearful of danger and too hopeless of anything being done, to initiate legal action. In an additional case a bank cashier declared in an interview in an Alabama paper, that a certain lynching victim had committed no offense, that there had been a mistake made in the man the mob was after.
LEGAL ACTION TAKEN BY PUBLIC OFFICIALS
Governor Thomas W. Bickett of North Carolina ordered the sheriff to investigate one case, but the sheriff reported that the "guilty parties could not be ascertained." The Governor in another case personally appealed to a mob at midnight and prevented the lynching of a man who was later hanged. The same Governor in November appealed to the Federal authorities and secured the support of a tank corps of 250 Federal army men to assist the authorities of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, in holding the local jail against a mob which was attempting to get a Negro prisoner to lynch him.
The Mayor and "Home Guards" of Winston-Salem, aided by the Federal soldiers alluded to, protected the aforementioned prisoner at the cost of the lives of some of the "Home Guards," for which public service, so unusual where Negro-hunting mobs are concerned, they should receive the tributes of all good citizens. .
Governor Charles Henderson of Alabama, in November, actively supported the attorney general of the state, who, at the instance of the Governor, personally took charge of an investigation of two lynchings which occurred in that state on the 10th and 12th of that month.
When a regular grand jury then in session failed to indict, a prominent detective agency was engaged and upon the evidence secured by them, a special grand jury, headed by a local clergyman, brought in 24 indictments. Seventeen men were lodged in jail without bail.
SPECIFIC ACTION BY THE EXECUTIVE OFFICE
The following tables summarize the action taken in specific cases by the Association:
Special investigations by a member of the staff have been made of lynchings at Fayetteville, Ga., Brooks and Lowndes Counties, Ga., Estill Springs, Tenn., Blackshear, Ga., and of race riots and disturbances at Camp Merritt, N. J., Brooklyn, N. Y. and Philadelphia, Pa.
Memoranda were prepared and sent to the President of the United States, to the Attorney General of the United States and to the executive committees of the American Bar Association, on the general subject of lynching, but with reference to immediate practical action desired by the Association. Letters requesting editorial interest in the fight against lynching were addressed to the leading papers of the country on several occasions and matter has been prepared for specific use by individual papers.
Publicity in the press was secured for the memorandum to the President and to the Attorney General. Mr. Storey's address to the Wisconsin Bar Association, June, 1918, on "The Negro Question," which contains much reference to lynching, was sent to all the members of the Cabinet and of the Congress, to Governors of all the states, mayors of cities, to newspapers, periodicals, and to leading citizens and will be given wider circulation during the early part of 1919.
The members of the executive staff have made reference to lynching in addresses in many cities to both white and colored audiences. Certain of Field Secretary Johnson's addresses before white audiences have met with notable responses.
ILLUSTRATION OF RESULTS FOLLOWING THE ASSOCIATION'S PUBLICITY WORK
The following examples of results following publicity sent out by the Association and telegrams addressed to Governors and Chambers of Commerce are reviewed:
On November 9, telegrams of inquiry and appeal for legal action in the case of the lynching of George Taylor at Rolesville, near Raleigh, N. C., were sent to Governor Bickett of North Carolina, to the County Solicitor of Wake County and to the Chamber of Commerce of Raleigh, of which that to the Governor was acknowledged. The Governor said that he agreed with the points made in the telegram and would back the County Solicitor in efforts to fix the blame for the affair. The Solicitor carried on an investigation for two weeks, examining 21 white and 9 colored witnesses. The coroner's jury ran true to form, finding that the victim came to his death at the hands of "parties unknown" to the jury.
The two leading Raleigh newspapers, one of them owned by Secretary of the Navy Daniels, carried strong editorial comment against the lynching and criticized the dereliction of the officers in allowing their prisoner to be taken from them. One of them commented directly and favorably on the Association's telegrams to the Governor.
Ten days later, as has been mentioned on a preceding page of this report, the same Governor appealed successfully to an adjacent army camp for help to support the mayor and "home guards" of Winston-Salem in holding the local jail against a mob which was attempting to seize a Negro prisoner to lynch him.
The Chambers of Commerce of Montgomery and Birmingham, Alabama, acknowledged telegrams and letters of the Association sent during November, saying that they supported our view and that the Governor had ordered the action referred to on a previous page of this report, that of instructing the attorney general of the state to push an investigation of the lynchings at Sheffield and Tuscumbia, Alabama.
OUTSTANDING EVENTS ASIDE FROM ASSOCIATION EFFORTS
LYNCHING RECORD FOR 1918
January 17--Hazelhurst, Miss., Sam Edwards, burned to death; charged with murder of Bera Willes, seventeen-year-old white girl.
" 26--Benton, La., Jim Hudson, hanged; living with a white woman.
February 7--Fayetteville, Ga., "Bud" Cosby, hanged; intent to rob and kidnapping.
" 12--Estill Springs, Tenn., Jim McIllheron, burned; accused of shooting to death two white men. G. W. Lych, who hid McIllheron, was shot to death.
" 23--Fairfax, S. C., Walter Best, hanged; accused of murder.
" 26--Rayville, La., Jim Lewis, Jim Jones and Will Powell, two hanged and one shot to death; accused of stealing hogs. In the fray one white man and one Negro were killed.
" 26--Willacoochee, Ga., Ed. Dansy, shot; he had killed two white officers and wounded three others.
March 16--Monroe, La., George McNeel and John Richards, hanged; alleged attack upon a white woman.
" 22--Crawfordsville, Ga., Spencer Evans, hanged; convicted of criminal assault upon a colored woman at the February term of court and sentenced to be hanged, but a mob took him from jail and lynched him.
" 26--Lewiston, N. C., Peter Bazemore; alleged attack upon a white woman.
April 4--Collinsville, Ill., Robert P. Praeger, hanged ; accused of making disloyal remarks.
" 20--Poplarville, Miss., Claud Singleton, hanged; accused of murdering a white man. He had been sentenced to life imprisonment.
" 22--Lexington, Tenn., Berry Noyes, hanged; murder of Sheriff W. E. McBride.
" 22--Monroe, La., Clyde Williams, hanged; shooting C. L. Thomas, Missouri-Pacific station agent at Fawndale.
May 17--Valdosta, Ga., Will Head, Will Thompson, Hayes Turner, Mary Turner, Sydney Johnson, Eugene Rice, Chime Riley, Simon Schuman and three unidentified Negroes, hanged; alleged complicity in the murder of Hampton Smith.
" 20--Erwin, Tenn., Thomas Devert, shot and burned; alleged murder of a white girl.
" 22--Miami, Fla., Henry Jackson, hanged; throwing a white man underneath a train.
" 22--Red Level, Ala., John Womack, shot; alleged assault on a white woman.
" 23--Cordele, Ga., James Cobb, hanged; alleged murder of Mrs. Roy Simmons.
" 25--Barnesville, Ga., John Calhoun, shot; alleged murder of John A. Willis.
June 4--Huntsville, Tex., Sarah Cabiness and her five children; Peter, Cute, Tenola, Thomas and Bessie, shot; alleged threat to avenge killing of George Cabiness.
" 4--Beaumont, Tex., Kirby Goolsie, hanged; alleged attack on a white girl.
" 4--Sanderson, Tex., Edward Valentine ; murder.
" 18--Mangham, La., George Clayton, hanged; murder of his employer, Ben Brooks. In a battle with the posse he wounded six men, probably fatally.
" 18--Earle, Ark., Allen Mitchell, hanged; wounding Mrs. W. M. Langston.
" 29--Madill, Okla., L. McGill, hanged; alleged attack upon a white woman.
July 27--Ben Hur, Tex., Gene Brown, hanged; alleged assault on a white woman.
August 7--Bastrop, La., "Bubber" Hall, hanged; alleged attack on a white woman.
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