Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-06-24
RIGHTS OF NEGROES.
Many If Them Lynched for Crimes
They Did Not Commit.
THEIR LEADERS SEEKING JUSTICE,
And Demanding That They Be Accorded
Different Treatment.
JUDGE ToURGEh's OPINIONS DISCUSSED

| To the Editor of The Dis patch:
The article recently in your paper heade'
'Toureee an Alarmist," is misleading; o
rather the apologetic utterances Of Mr.. Rob
ert Purvis for the barbarities of the rae
who live south of "Mason and Dixon's'
line, from whom seven-eighths of his bloo'
is supplied, are misleading.
He says: 'If my reading is not at fault
these iynchings that he (Judge Tourgee,
refers to, have been almost without excep
tion visited upon colored men who have as
saulted white women" His reading il
akin to that of his seven-eighths brother, ths
holy ca Bishop Fitzgerald, of the M. E
Church, South. First, Mr.. Purvis' read
ing must either be at fault or he has no
read very much. The facts prove that no
more than one-third of the black men WHIT
have been burned alive, hanged, shot OIL
disiointed were even accused of assaulting
white women.
What was the charge against the three
black men lynched so recently in Memphis!
What against the men in Arkansas who
struck for higher wages and we're shot In
their beds? What about the hundreds who
have been murdered for the expression Of
an opinion on political matters?
Mr.. Purvis is very int elligent man, ]
admit, but how does he, with all his intelli-
gence. know that even the men accused of
that heinous crime are guilty of assaulting
white women?
The Des Moines Register says lately: "Of
the 72S negroes lynched during the last
eight years only 269 were accused of assault,
or 1 in 8; the others were lynched for all
manner of crimes, even to circulating
scandals and colonizing negroes, and turn
ing States evidence against white men," I
have only to-day read of three men in
Alabama who were lynched for burglary
three weeks ago. Is he wiser than the law
which considers man innocent until he is
proven guilty?
Innocent But Burned Alive.
/ saw few days ago in a newspaper that
the woman who set fire to the negro in
Texarkana has since confessed that the man
was innocent of the crime for which he was
burned alive. Think of It'll A man burned
alive, whose shrieks we're heard for seven
minutes as he writhed in torture, for a
crime of which his accuser now admits him
to have been innocent! Think of it in a
Christian CD land, the "Sweet Land of
Liberty" (?), at the close nearly of the nine
teenth century! How many newspapers
in the country raised their voices in
condemnation of the barbarous act
OF did more than simply note
the fact as an item of ordinary news? Yet
few months ago the papers were teening
with condemnation of the method of execu-
tion in the Empire State, because man,
who had committed deliberate brutal muir
der, and electrocuted after long delay and
full trial, had not died instantly, or rather
that it was disputed question whether or
not he was conscious two minutes after the
first shock. But he was a white man.
Now do not understand me to be in any
degree in sympathy with the criminal, be he
white or black. But 1 say, let him suffer
the penalty of the law, but only after being
proven guilty.
earnestly hope that the fears Of our
devoted friend, Judge Tourgee, are not
her wings over this land and these lynch
ings which would disgrace the most bar
barous land on the face of the globe will
cease, and in their place law shall be exc
cuted whether the one upon whom its aim
falls be black or white. But if these out
RACES continue one of two things will be
found true, viz, either the negro will show
himself a coward or he will strike back.
Whether they are coAards or not let the
records of all the wars of this nation (save
the Mexican, which was waged for the
acquisition of slave territory answer.
let the more than 1876, 900 who
fought in the late war, of whom 81, 900 were
slain, answer.
A Spectacle of the Century.
confess I dislike to think that the pre-
dictions of Judge Tourgee are true. But
was there ever such spectacle witnessed as
that of the 31st of May last? A whole race
of people pleading with God to shield them
from the prosecutions of Christian CD
people, pleading for guidance, for wis
dom, conservation to the cause of just
ice and right. Does Mr. Purvis not
oration who believe just as the white man
does that 'the Lord helps those who help
and that the number is being
added to with each lynching, which is to say
every day!
Thousands Of colored people are coming
North each year, many OF whom return
with new ideas of what freedom is, gained
even in the prescribed circle in which it
radiates for the negro in the North.
They are impressed with the absence of
the "Jim Grow" car and the pen called
''colored waiting room" They are sur
prised to find they can get meal in most
and that large number of
hotels will give them accommodation if
hey can pay for it. They are astounded to
ind colored children in the mixed schools,
and still more so to see in few cities such
as Cleveland, where man is Judged BY
m crit rather than color, colored teachers in
these mixed schools 4
1t is a source of congratulation that in no
white church in the North would they be
lrrested for trespassing, as the negro. Mr..
Cotton, was last winter, who was simple |
enough to think he could get some help |
by attending the Second Pres
,yterian Church, corner of Beale and Main
treets, Memphis, Tenn. I do not know, |
tut presume they send the gospel to the |
leathen. Returning, they report these |
differences and how they partook of these |
lights, which naturally causes them all to
hafe more and more under the hand of the |
ppressoE.
Between the North and South. |
To this number add the thousands of ne
roes in the South who are becoming more |
ducated, which opens their minds and
earts to the fact that they can look for no
ustice ID the South. For here in the North |
re get justice in the courts and, therefore,
an hopefully wait for time and the ever in
reasing sense of what is Justly due us on
he part of the whites, together with the
ducation and accumulation of wealth on
he part of the negro, to right the remain
ng wrongs
But in the South, as the negro advances,
ppression and injustice increase. and we
annot look forward with any we'll assured
lope of the more desirable means of adjust
think the present political campaign
ill demonstrate to the nation that change
as come over the negro; that he is begin
ing to think and act for himself