New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1884-01-01
LYNCHING At THE SOUTH.

A recent dispatch relating the lynching Of
negro at the South by some cOlOred men closed
with the remark that if the facts were as al
legged, il was the first case of the kind that had
occurred in that region; that Is the first ease i'll
which colOrcd men had lynchcd one OF their
own race for the murder of a white man. We
do not know whether this remark is justified,
but it certainly appears TO have been ncalled
for, seeing that the converse of it, namely the
lynching of a white man by people of his own
race for the murder of negro. has never yet
been heard Of though many white men haze
been barbarously slaughtered by people of their
own color for venturing to defend negroes from
oppression and ill-usage. And it is in order to
point out that lynching at the South, while it is
very common practice, is almost invariably
the hanging or shooting by mob of white men
of some negro who is accused of assaulting or
killing white. SO very common is this prac-
! tee that whenever Wehcar of an alray between
whites and negroes in which one of the former
gets hurt or killed, we fully expect to learn i'll
| the course of day or two that the negro was
put in iail, and that an armed and masked
party of white men took him ont and hanged
him. or shot him in his cell. Take the YazOO
case for an illustration Perhaps the negroes
there killed deserved death, though not in that
way. But who ever heard of similar eargerness
to inhict vengeance when the offenders were
white men and the victims COlOrcd This seems
| TO be the regular form OfprOCeedings i'll many Of
the Southern States, audit invites inquiry. Why
! is it thought necessary thus to anticipate the
| law! Is it pretended that the whites down
! South cannot depend upon the courts Are the
! negroes organized in secret societies to prevent
the administration of justice when their own
race is concerned? Are they so bOOdthirsty
and turbulent that it is necessary to give them
sharp warning, ut short intervals Do the
| Southern whites 90 in constant terror and ap-
prchension, and is their propensity to lawless-
ness the effect of their fears
! We do not think the Southern press will
answer any of these questions in the atfrma-
tive. Indeed, it is tOerably notorious that the
Southern whites are not mt all afraid Of the coll
ored people. But why, then, do they so often
resort to lynch lawl Is it cause they are de-
termined not to admit the equality of the col
Ored race before the law because in their hearts
they regard that race as inferior; because they
are resolved to impress upon the negro mind
the fact that killing a white man is very differ
ent from killing a negro9 We are afraid that
y
more plausible and probable than the other
The truth seems to be that there are still many
Southern white men who refuse to accept the
new regime, and who are resolved to keep the
colOred race in subsection, despite all the laws
and all the constitutional amendments the rest
Of the country can promulgate. And these pcO-
pie favor lynching because they think it good
way to make the negro realize that he is after
all, an inferior being, and that he must not ex-
pect to be allowed to enjoy the same privileges
and immmities as his former owners.
Nobody ever heard of white mans
being lynched for the murder of a negro.
We might almost 90 sofar as to say
that very few have ever heard of
a white mans being punished in any way for
the murder of negro. But if a negro kills a
white man, even in self-defence, a lynching
party is at once organized, and the sudden
hemp or pistol once more conveys to the cOlored
community that lesson Of submission and sub
ordination which it is the chief purpose of the
old Bourbon slave-driyers to impart If this be
not the true explanation Of Southern lynching,
no doubt our Southern contemporaries will cor
rect us.