The Fight Against Lynching by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Google: IO_aGAAACAAJ
Publisher: NAACP
Published: 1919-01-15T03:12:50+00:00

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 (that the lynchers of Will Byrd and Henry Whiteside should be ascertained and legal action against them taken) 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.

Space forbids the citation of further examples. In many cases, however, no direct effect was produced by the Association's long distance efforts. It would be a mistake, however, to assume that no beneficial results can be credited to such of the Association's forty telegraphic inquiries (accompanied by newspaper publicity) as had occasioned no immediate action. Correspondents have written and callers at the National Headquarters have assured the National Officers of the value of this publicity work. In some cases local leaders among the white citizens have called upon colored people to assure them of their concern for the well being and protection of the good Negro and incidentally, we are told, to advise them against allying themselves with "northern agitators."

That the pressure of national opinion is felt and feared, even in the center of the lynching area, is evidenced by such editorials as that following a protest against a Louisana lynching, in which a local editor devoted a column of matter to "lambasting" the National Secretary under the caption "No Outside Scolds Needed.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.