Southern Lynchings -- June 15, 2024

Indianapolis Times, 22-June-1924

Educator Booker T Washington was very influential in the African American community and in the wider culture in the early 20th Century. When I was growing up, his reputation had diminished, but I believe that he did a lot of good things for America.

SOUTHERN LYNCHINGS

NOTABLE STATEMENT BY BOOKER T.

WASHINGTON, OF TUSKEGEE.

He Shows that Mob Justice Has Not

Decreased the Number of Crimes

Charged Against Negroes.

AN APPEAL TO THE COUNTRY

FOR CREATION OF A SENTIMENT

THAT WILL MAKE LIFE SAFE.

He Also Urges the Arousing of Such a

Sentiment Against Criminal Assault

as Will Prevent the Crime.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala., June 21. -- Booker T. Washington, president of the Industrial and Normal School at Tuskegee, to-day furnished the Associated Press with an elaborate discussion of the race question in the form of a paper. Professor Washington begins his paper by saying that, while it is true there are cases of lynching and outrages in the Northern and Western States, candor compels him to admit that by far the most lynchings take place In the Southern States and most of the persons lynched are negroes.

"With all the earnestness of my heart," he pays, "I want to appeal not to the President of the United States, Mr. McKlnley, not to the people of New York nor New England, but to the citizens of our Northern States, to assist in creating such a public sentiment as will make human life here just as safe and sacred as it is anywhere else in the world."

The paper then offers a review of the appeal that has been made through tho press by prominent men that the negro problem be left to the South. He recites that the whole country, from the President down, has been inclined to do this. "By the policy of non-interference the South has been given a sacred trust," he says. I fear but few people in the South realize to what an extent the habit of lynching or the taking of life without due process of law has taken hold of us and to what an extent it is not only hurting us in the eyes of the world, but injuring our own moral and material growth. Many good people in the South, and also out of the South, have got the Idea that lynching is resorted to for one crime only. I have the facts from an authoritative source.

"During the last year 127 rersons were lynched in the United States; of this number 115 were executed in the South and none in the North and West; of the total number lynched 102 were negroes, 23 whites and 2 Indians. Now let every one interested in the South, his country and the cause of humanity note this fact, that only 21 of the entire number were charged in any way with the crime of rape; that is, 24 out of 127 cases of lynching; 61 of the remaining cases were for murder, 12 for being suspected of murder, 6 for theft. During one week last spring, when I kept a careful record, 13 negroes were lynched in three of our Southern States and none was even charged with rape. Let us take another year, that of 1892, for example. During this year, 1892, 241 persons were lynched in the whole United States: of this number were lynched in Northern and Western States and 186 in our Southern States. Of the 241 lynched in the whole country 160 were negroes and 5 of these women. The facts show that out of 241 lynchings in the entire country in 1892 but 57 were even charged with attempted rape, leaving in that year alone 184 persons who were lynched for other causes than that of rape. Within a period of six years about 900 persons have been lyncned in our Southern States. This Is but a few hundred short of the total number of soldiers who lost their lives in Cuba during the war.

CLASSES OF CRIME.

"If we would realize still more fully how far this unfortunate habit Is leading us, note the classes of crime during a few months which the local papers and the Associated Press say that lynching has been inflicted for they include, murder, rioting, incendiarism, robbery, larceny, self-defense, insuiting women, alleged stock poisoning, malpractice, alleged barn burning, suspected robbery, race prejudice, attempted murder and horse stealing, mistaken identity, etc. The practice has grown until we are now at the point where not only blacks are lynched in the South, but white men as well. Not only this, but within the last six years at least a half dozen colored women have been lynched and there are a few cases where negroes have lynched members of their own race. What Is to be the end of this? Besides this, every lynching drives hundreds of negroes from the farming districts of the South, where they make the best living and where their services are of greatest value to the country, into the already crowded cities.

"I know that some will argue that the crime of lynching negroes is not confined to the South. This is true, and no one can excuse such a crime as the shooting of innocent black men in Illinois who were guilty or no crime except seeking labor, but my words just now are to the South, where my home is, and a part of which I am. Let other sections act as they will; I want to see our beautiful Southland free from this terrible evil of lynching. Lynching does not stop crime.

"In the Immediate section of the South where a colored man recently committed the most terrible crime ever charged against members of my race, but a few weeks previous to this five colored men had been lynched for supposed incendiarism. If the lynching was a cure for crime surely the lynching of five would have prevented another negro from committing a most heinous crime a few weeks later.

"We might as well meet the facts bravely and wisely. Since the beginning of the world crime has been committed in all civilized and uncivilized countries and a certain amount of crime will always be committed both in the North and South, but I believe that the crime of rape can be stopped. In proportion to the news and intelligence of the South there exists a little more crime than in several other sections of the country, but by the lynching habit we are constantly advertising ourselves to the world as a lawless people. We cannot disregard the teachings of the civlized world for 1,800 years -- that the only way to punish crime is by law. When we leave this dictum chaos begins.

NOT FOR NEGROES ALONE.

"I am not pleading for the negro alone. Lynching injures, hinders and blunts the moral sensibilities of the young and tender manhood of the South. Never shall I forget the remark made by a little nine-year-old white boy, with blue eyes and flaxen hair. The little fellow said to his mother, after he had returned from a lynching: 'I have seen a man hanged; now I wish I could see one burned.' Rather than hear such a remark from one of my little boys I would rather see him dead. This is not all; every community guilty of lynching says in so many words to the Governor, to the Legislature, to the sheriff, to the jury and to the Judge: I have no faith In you and no respect for yon. We have no respect for the law which we helped to make.

"In the South, and at the present time, there is less excuse for not permitting the law to take its course where a negro is to be tried than anywhere else in the world, for, almost without exception, the Governors, the sheriffs, the Judges, the juries and the lawyers are all white men, and they can be trusted as a rule to do their duty, otherwise it is needless to tax the people to support these officers. If our present laws are not sufficient to properly punish crime, let the law be changed, but let the punishment be by lawfully constituted authorities, is the plea I beg to make.

"There is too much crime among us. The figures for a given period show that in the United States 30 per cent, of the crime committed is by negroes, while we constitute only about 12 per cent, of the entire population. This proportion holds good not only in the South, but also in Northern States and cities. No race that is so largely ignorant and so recently out of slavery could perhaps show a better record, but we must face these plain facts. He is most kind to the negro who tells him of his faults as well as of his virtues. A large amount of the crime among us grows out of the idleness of our young men and women. It is for this reason that I have tried to insist upon some industry, being taught our young people in connection with their course of literary training."

Professor Washington concludes his paper by appealing to school teachers, ministers and the press to arouse such a sentiment regarding the committing of crime against women that, no such crime will be charged against any member of the race. He says the negro has among the Southern whites as good friends as he has anywhere in the world, and advises him to stay here and work out his salvation.