The record-union., 1895-03-06
ONE LAW FOR WHITE And BLACK.
Miss Ida B. Wells Denounces the
Southern Lynchings.
Her Vigorous and Eloquent Protest
Against What She Declares to be
an outrage on Her Race.

Miss Ida B. Wells, young and talented
an address at the Congregational Church
on Lynch Law in America" She
nearly filled the church. The speaker
possesses a clear, musical voice, and
handles her subject in mastery style.
Miss Wells holds that the lynching and
burning of negroes had become a habit
in many States North and South that
from its regularity needed repression in
the name of civilization, morality and
Christianity. In recent cases, where
negroes were burned by mobs, the
speaker declared there had always been
doubt of the guilt of the victims, and sell
dom, if ever, any proof.
''You must take up the repression and
enter your protest." said she, because it
is the white man and his Government
that is on trial. The negro has lived too
long with the white man not to have
copied as many of his vices as of his
virtues"
The white man was arraigned as vicious
and communicating in his influence on the
negro race, and it was stated that when
the victim OF the lynching was negro
the action of the lynchers was never
noticed, so far as punishment was con-
cerned, by the legal authorities.
She vividly describ bed several instances
of lynching throughout the Southern
States, and stated that because an edi-
torial written on the subject by herself
and published in the columns of a paper
which she was editing in Memphis,
Tenn, had not met the appreciation of
the residents of that city, her plant had
been destroyed and she herself threat
nod wit IL =, chr Il rl,o
though 1T were after lapse OF twenty
years. She paused, and then added: For
this reason | have never returned"
When the story of cruelty to Henry
Smith, the negro who was burned by
mob in Paris, Texas, February l, 1898,
was told. She said:
ut is a well established principle of
law that every wrong has remedy.
Herein rests our respect for law. The
negro does not claim that all of the 900
DIack men, women and children who
have been hanged, shot and burned alive
during the past ten years were innocent
OF the charges made against them. We
have associated too long with the while
man not to have copied his vices as well
as his virtues. But we do insist that the
punishment is not the same for both
classes Of criminals.
In lynchlng, opportunity is not given
the negro to defend himself against the
and women. The word of the accuser is
held to be true, and the excited, blood
thirsty mob demands that the rule OF law
be reversed, and instead 'of proving the
accused TO be guilty, the victim OF their
hate and revenge must prove himself in
nocent. No evidence he can offer VIII
satisfy the mob; he is bound hand and
foot and swung into eternity.
therefore, we demand a fair trial by
law for those accused of crime and pun
lshment by law after honest conviction,
No maudlin sympathy for criminals is
solicited, but we do ask that the law shall
punish all alike. We earnestly desire
those that control the forces which make
pubic sentiment to join with us in the
demand. Surely the Humanitarian spirit
OF this country which reaches out to de-
nounce the treatment of the Russian
Jews, the Armenian Christians, the labor
ing poor OF Europe. the Siberian exiles
and the native women of India, will not
longer refuse to lift it's voice on this sub
ject.
IF it were known that the cannibaIs or
savage Indians had burned three human
beings alive III the past two years the
whole OF Chrlstendom would be reused
to devise ways aud means to put stop
TO 1t. Can you remain silent and inact-
I've when such things are done in our own
community and country? Is your duty
binding?
The remedy lies with you. my
friends. Let all good Christians unite on
this subject and demand that justice be
dealt out with impartiality to the black
as well as to the white, so that the former
might sing in truth that grand old hymn,
My country, 'tislof thee, sweet land of
hberty-of thee l sing'"
Miss Wells roundly scored the entire
press Of the country because she could
obtain no hearing on her chosen subject
through their columns before her tour
through England, and stated that when
her speeches in that country had enlisted
the sympathies of that people and a
committee mad been appointed to investi-
gate, they were refused the privilege.
After this the papers opened their col
umns to articles on the subject, proving
conclusively that one could be heard bet
ter at distance of 5000 miles than at
home.