Huntsville gazette., 1892-04-30
TO THE COLORED PEOPL E
OF the The United States and
Their Friends.
May 31st Set Apart as Day for Fas-
ting and Prayer.

You cannot be Indifferent to the
awful condition Of affairs in parts OF
our country, in consequence of which
scores Of men and women of our race
are annually condemned to sudden
and cruel deaths by the rope, the
pistol and more horrible still, by
burning alive.
These deaths are inflicted by mobs
uron men who are accused Of crimes
for which the law provides adequate
punishment and in communities
where the punishment Of crimes com>
mitted by colored men is sure, sure
for the reason that in those same
communities the prejudices ofjudges
and juries against the negro race are
so deep, that innocent men find it
difficult to escape the penalties as
sessed against the crimes with which
they are charged.
These murders by mobs are most
frequently committed in yards sur
rounding court houses, which should
be temples of justice; sometimes in
sight of school houses, awful object
lessons to the future voters of this
Republic, which can exist only so
long as its citizens respect and obey
their self-imposed laws; not unfre-
quently they are perpetrated in the
shadow of churches, whose ministers
are, perhaps overawed by the pre-
valent passions Of their communities,
or worse, their consciences are scared,
their ears are deaf and they fail to
hear the voice of their brothers blood
when it cries from the ground.
The newspapers Of the country,
with rare and honorable exceptions.
are silent when these murders are
committed Stories of bloody vio-
Ience, which, if enacted in Ireland or
far off Russia. would bring out long
columns of indignant protest, or of
Pharisaical laudation Of American
civilization, are printed in columns
of general news without note or COM
ment.
The Associated Press, that agent
so powerful for the enlightenment of
the public and the formation of opin-
ion, gives its assent to musder. by
branding the victims with vile epi-
thets. and many sleep in bloody
graves, stigmatized as ''black fends,
''negro monsters" and the like, who
with fair trials might have gone free.
The condition is an appalling one
1t discloses the awful fact that there
are men in the country who desire to
solve the Negro Problem by massa>
ere. 1t proves that over wide dis
tricts of our country, this party of
men has many members and is pow
erful enough to defy the law and
work its murderous will upon its
helpless victims.
This condition demands action at
our hands. For us to sit silently,
saying nothing and doing nothing
would prove that we have not the
feeling of men.
What shall we do p
What can we do p
The local authorities where these
murders take place are with Difficult
ty aroused to the necessity Of bury
ing the corpses Of the victims, SO hor~
ribly disigured by strangulation, by
shot and by flame.
The State authoritest are indiffer
ent, and the National authorities,
who so lately equipped war!ike fleets
and sent them in angry hasts to
avenge the death Of an adopted citi-
zen. slain in distant port, confess
themselves powerless to protect their
native citizens murdered upon
American soil.
IT'S vain to look to any of these
for relief.
To whom then can we turn, save
to the Lord God; to Him, Who has
the power to enlighten and soften