 |
| Saint Paul Appeal, 11-August-1923 |
Three front-page articles from the 11-August-1923 Saint Paul Appeal are about lynching, a threatened race riot and a Ku Klux Klan cross burning.
I had never heard of Senator William Cabell Bruce, but after I read his views on lynching and the Klan, I liked him. He served only one term.
Even though whites opposed the creation of what is now the Tuskegee Veterans Administration Medical Center, once it opened, they wanted all the professional jobs to be held by whites. Appeals to President Harding let to him agreeing that the hospital should employ black doctors and nurses.
1. The Dyer Bill will not stop lynching any more than the Eighteenth Amendment
will stop whiskey drinking. Laws depend upon public sentiment for their enforcement.
I am in favor of each State passing an anti-lynching bill punishing mobs and officials
engaged in lynchings and granting damages in money to the family of the victim.
2. Tuskegee Hospital should be manned by colored doctors and nurses. If I were a white nurse or doctor and were sent to Tuskegee Hospital. I would not serve.
3. The Ku Klux Klan is a menace to American sovereignty and should be wiped from the face of the earth. The sooner they are destroyed, the better it will be for the nation. I am going to fight against them with the same fervor that I am going to fight against the lynching mob.
The strongest statement on the question of race relationship ever uttered by a Maryland U. S. senator was that given out by W. Cabell Bruce, Maryland’s junior senator, elected on the Democratic ticket recently.
In it Senator Bruce thundered against lynching, the Ku Klux Klan and the effort being made to place a white personnel over the colored soldier’s hospital at Tuskegee. The senator takes his seat for the first time in the next congress.
Senator Bruce said:
"As a member of the Senate, I propose, so far as it shall lie in my power, to see that the colored man receives fair and just treatment in every respect. For instance, if I had a voice in the matter, I should certainly insist that the veterans’ hospital, recently established by the government at Tuskegee for the care of colored veterans, should be under the charge of colored physicians and nurses; assuming, as I have no reason to doubt, that the colored people could furnish competent persons for the places; and I should insist upon my point all the more strongly now that such an irresponsible and danferous order as the Ku Klux Klan has endeavored to terrorize Dr. Moton, the head of Tuskegee, and his associates.
Physician At Tuskegee.
If I were a white physician or nurse, I would be ashamed to permit myself to be the instrument of such gross injustice. If the principle of carrying along the two races on equal but not converging lines is a sound working one, where could it be better applied than to the situation that has risen at the Tuskegee hospital?
"I shall also avail myself of all the little influence that my office may give me to do whatever I can to bring to an end the savage and abominable practice of lynching -- a practice that is unworthy of any community that affects to possess the merest rudiments of civilization; but not by voting as a senator for the Dyer anti-lynching bill; for in my judgment that bill is a palpably unconstitutional measure; and, even if it were not, it would, if enacted, be such an irritating interference with the domestic interests of the states that the bitterness engendered by it would be much more likely to make it productive of harm than of good."
New York, Aug. 10. -- In connection with the report today of the arrest of three colored veterans at the United States government hospital in Tuskegee, Alabama, the National Association today issued a warning of a race riot "manufactured" by Alabama whites to discredit the hospital inmates and colored staff.
"White people have threatened the heads of Tuskegee Institute and have driven away colored men appointed by the United States Veterans’ Bureau to fill positions in the government hospital at Tuskegee.
"Failing to terrorize the United States government, the white Tuskegee mobbists are now attempting to prepare the country for a carefully manufactured ‘race riot’ at Tuskegee. It is to be expected that if attacked by a mob, the colored people in Tuskegee will attempt to defend themselves."
A fiery cross 20 feet high burned Monday night on the hill facing Little Bass lake, seven miles north of St. Paul, while at least 100 robed followers of the Ku Klux Klan and perhaps 400 men in civilian clothes held a Klan meeting in the hollow close to the lake.
Elaborate precautions were taken by those at the meeting to prevent interruption and maintain secrecy, according to lake residents who live across the lake from the scene of the gathering. The hollow where the meeting was held is part of the picnic grounds owned by Charles Chapman, who also maintains a large bathing beach on Big Bass lake.
On the hill, facing up, according to the Jake residents, was a circle of parked cars with searchlights burning, while guards were posted at intervals along the top of the hill, thus making it impossible for anyone to approach the meeting from this side, unobserved. A similar row of cars faced the lake, their searchlights being trained so that no boat could approach the shore without being seen. Deputy Sheriff Frank Robert, who lives on the opposite shore, was honored with two searchlights constantly on his house, according to information received. About half a dozenboats were out on the lake, but little accurate information as to the proceedings could be learned.
The gathering of the Klan began about 9 P. M. and the meeting lasted about two hours. A similar meeting was held July 4, but none of the lake residents paid much attention to it then, as it was thought to be merely a Fourth celebration.
MARYLAND’S NEW
SENATOR FLAYS
HOODED KLUXERS
Would Have Veterans’ Hospital
Manned by Colored
Personnel.
WILL STOP LYNCHING
Advocates Uniform Anti-Lynch
Laws in Each State Rather
Than Dyer Bill
(Afro Service.)
SENATOR BRUCE’S
VIEWS AT A GLANCE
2. Tuskegee Hospital should be manned by colored doctors and nurses. If I were a white nurse or doctor and were sent to Tuskegee Hospital. I would not serve.
3. The Ku Klux Klan is a menace to American sovereignty and should be wiped from the face of the earth. The sooner they are destroyed, the better it will be for the nation. I am going to fight against them with the same fervor that I am going to fight against the lynching mob.
The strongest statement on the question of race relationship ever uttered by a Maryland U. S. senator was that given out by W. Cabell Bruce, Maryland’s junior senator, elected on the Democratic ticket recently.
In it Senator Bruce thundered against lynching, the Ku Klux Klan and the effort being made to place a white personnel over the colored soldier’s hospital at Tuskegee. The senator takes his seat for the first time in the next congress.
Senator Bruce said:
Pledges Fairness.
"As a member of the Senate, I propose, so far as it shall lie in my power, to see that the colored man receives fair and just treatment in every respect. For instance, if I had a voice in the matter, I should certainly insist that the veterans’ hospital, recently established by the government at Tuskegee for the care of colored veterans, should be under the charge of colored physicians and nurses; assuming, as I have no reason to doubt, that the colored people could furnish competent persons for the places; and I should insist upon my point all the more strongly now that such an irresponsible and danferous order as the Ku Klux Klan has endeavored to terrorize Dr. Moton, the head of Tuskegee, and his associates.
Physician At Tuskegee.
If I were a white physician or nurse, I would be ashamed to permit myself to be the instrument of such gross injustice. If the principle of carrying along the two races on equal but not converging lines is a sound working one, where could it be better applied than to the situation that has risen at the Tuskegee hospital?
Opposed to Lynching.
"I shall also avail myself of all the little influence that my office may give me to do whatever I can to bring to an end the savage and abominable practice of lynching -- a practice that is unworthy of any community that affects to possess the merest rudiments of civilization; but not by voting as a senator for the Dyer anti-lynching bill; for in my judgment that bill is a palpably unconstitutional measure; and, even if it were not, it would, if enacted, be such an irritating interference with the domestic interests of the states that the bitterness engendered by it would be much more likely to make it productive of harm than of good."
MANUFACTURED RIOT
AT TUSKEGEE FORECAST
Whites to Try to Prove Colored
Staff at Hospital
Impracticable.
New York, Aug. 10. -- In connection with the report today of the arrest of three colored veterans at the United States government hospital in Tuskegee, Alabama, the National Association today issued a warning of a race riot "manufactured" by Alabama whites to discredit the hospital inmates and colored staff.
"White people have threatened the heads of Tuskegee Institute and have driven away colored men appointed by the United States Veterans’ Bureau to fill positions in the government hospital at Tuskegee.
"Failing to terrorize the United States government, the white Tuskegee mobbists are now attempting to prepare the country for a carefully manufactured ‘race riot’ at Tuskegee. It is to be expected that if attacked by a mob, the colored people in Tuskegee will attempt to defend themselves."
KLAN CROSS BURNS AT BASS LAKE
LAKESIDE MEETING
HELD BY LIGHT OF
HUGE FIEBY CROSS
Gathering Draws About 400 in
Civilian Clothes; Distribute Pamphlets.
100 APPEAR IN SHEETS
Burning Auto Headlights Light
all Approaches, Maintain Secrecy.
A fiery cross 20 feet high burned Monday night on the hill facing Little Bass lake, seven miles north of St. Paul, while at least 100 robed followers of the Ku Klux Klan and perhaps 400 men in civilian clothes held a Klan meeting in the hollow close to the lake.
Elaborate precautions were taken by those at the meeting to prevent interruption and maintain secrecy, according to lake residents who live across the lake from the scene of the gathering. The hollow where the meeting was held is part of the picnic grounds owned by Charles Chapman, who also maintains a large bathing beach on Big Bass lake.
Headlights Kept Burning.
On the hill, facing up, according to the Jake residents, was a circle of parked cars with searchlights burning, while guards were posted at intervals along the top of the hill, thus making it impossible for anyone to approach the meeting from this side, unobserved. A similar row of cars faced the lake, their searchlights being trained so that no boat could approach the shore without being seen. Deputy Sheriff Frank Robert, who lives on the opposite shore, was honored with two searchlights constantly on his house, according to information received. About half a dozenboats were out on the lake, but little accurate information as to the proceedings could be learned.
Meeting Lasts Two Hours.
The gathering of the Klan began about 9 P. M. and the meeting lasted about two hours. A similar meeting was held July 4, but none of the lake residents paid much attention to it then, as it was thought to be merely a Fourth celebration.
No comments:
Post a Comment