Lynching is Spreading -- April 14, 2022

Omaha Monitor, 28-April-1922

Representative Leonidas C Dyer, a Republican from Missouri, introduced a bill to control lynching and got it passed by the House on more than one occasion, but each time it was denied by the Southern Senators. Just this year, the House and Senate passed the Emmett Till Antilynching Act. President Joe Biden signed it into law on 29-March-2022.

Omaha Monitor, 28-April-1922

The Omaha Monitor was an African-American owned newspaper.

WHAT EDITORS SAY

LYNCHING IS SPREADING

The spread of the lynching evils especially where the colored peoples are the victims is especially illustrated by events within the past few days. Quite recently the dispatches told of the lynching of two Negroes in a southern state for the crime of assault. The headline reader would be misled into thinking that this was a crime against women. On the contrary a reading of the text of the story revealed the fact that the offense was an assault and battery committed against a white man.

Originally the lynching of Negroes was condoned on the ground that it was a protection for the women. This was not always true even in the beginning of this monstrous wrong. Often innocent Negroes were framed by scheming enemies, and charged with social crimes. Regardless of the fact that any colored woman was regarded as fair prey for any white man, the orgy of lynching was directed exclusively against the colored man. But like any other wrong, it grew with age and practice.

The rope and stake were next applied to alleged murderers, when the accused was a colored man, and now it seems that where a Negro licks a white man in the south, the Negro’s life is forfeit.

No wonder the colored man is moving heaven and earth to secure the passage of the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill. And it would seem that the white people should also be interested, for it is a short step from lynching colored people to applying the same treatment to white people. In fact, that step has already been taken, and lynching of whites are also becoming of frequent occurrence.

The remedy lies in making the laws worthy of respect, and then rigidly enforcing them. This is supposed to be a government of law. It must be made so in fact, if this nation is to endure. 

-- The Liberal Press.

Richmond, Indiana Palladium-Item, 02-December-1932