26 Lynchings in 1923, Against 61 During 1922 -- January 6, 2024

Richmond Planet, 05-January-1924

26 LYNCHINGS IN 1923, AGAINST

61 DURING 1922.

Decline in Mob Murders Laid to Agitation

for Federal Law and Migration.

Mississippi and

Florida Lead With 5 Each.

New York, December. -- Sharp decline in the number or lynchings in the United States during the year 1922 the figure being 26 as against 61 in 1922 was laid to the agitation for a Federal anti-lynching law, and to the northward migration of Negroes, in a statement today by James Weldon Johnson Secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. 69 Fifth Avenue, New York.

Mississippi and Florida lead the list of lynching states with 5 mob murders each. Georgia is second with 4. Oklahoma is third with 3. Arkansas, Alabama and Texas have 2 each. Other states in which one lynching occurred are: Louisiana Missouri and Virginia.

Only 7 out of the 26 persons were charged with assault upon women, and in the case of one of the seven the janitor of the University of Missouri, grave doubt was subsequently cast upon the guilt of the mob’s victim. Other offenses for which lynchings occurred include: mistaken identity, aiding in escape, associating with white women, being in an automobile accident, remaining in a town where Negroes were not wanted and frightening white children by walking harmlessly along a country road. Two of the victims of lynching mobs were white men. One colored woman was lynched in Pickens Mississippi.

"Two main causes brought about the decline in lynching in 1923," said Mr. Johnson. "First was the agitation on the floor of Congress, and throughout the country for a federal anti-lynching bill, the measure introduced by Mr. Dyer passing the last House of Representatives by a vote of 230 to 119. The second main cause was the northward migration of Negroes by the hundreds of thousands. This has borne in on the South that lynching will have to be stopped if the best labor the South can get for its plantations and industries is to he retained. Prospects for the enactment of the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill in the present Congress are excellent, in the light of President Coolidge’s anti-lynching pronouncement in his message to Congress. It is to be hoped that in a very few years the crime of lynching will have been completely wiped out in America."