The times., 1899-06-11
A NEGRO APPEAL TO
SOUTHERN OFFICIALS
1t-4->a- ss-sas
The Afro-American Council
Raises Its Voice.
Recent Acts of LawlesSness Viewed
With CONSERVATION.
The Failure of LynchinE as Pre-
ventive of Crime-The Col
ored Mans Argument.

The Afro-American Council sends out
from Washington the following appeal 10
the Governors, legislators, and judicial Of
ficers of the Southern States:
THE Afro-American Council of the
United States, a representative organiza-
tion in part of ten millions of American
citizens. viewing with CONSERVATION and
alarm the rapid spread of lawlessness and
the reckless destruction OF human life
which have recently taken place in the
States of South Carolina, North Carolina,
Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisi-
ana, Texas, and Georgia, and particularly
in the last named State, the horrible and
inhuman burning and mutilation of Sam
Hose on April 23, the lynching Of Lise
Strickland and the attempted lynching OF
| Albert Sewell on the 24th, deem it an i'm
operative duty and necessity to make an
earnest and prayerful appeal to the Gov
! errors, legislators, judicial, and other Of
ficers in these several States, to assert
their authority, vindicate the majesty of
| the law and secure to all citizens the pro-
| lection to which they are entitled under
| the Constitution and laws of the United
States and the States in question. In the
States named there exists today condition
| of terror and insecurity among the colored
people unknown among any other people
since the days of the French Revolution.
| The persecution of the Jews in Russia, the
cruelties OF the Turks toward the Armen-
ians, or the wrongs inflicted upon the
Greeks in Crete, which aroused the sym
pathy of the civilized world, are mild in
comparison with the wrongs and outrages
inflicted upon our defenceless people in
these States.
In the South Carolina and North Gao
| lima political riots a large number OF col
ored men were ruthiessly killed. On the
| 18th of March five colored men, while IN
the custody of the sheriff awaiting trial On
the charge of incendiarism, were shot to
death and three others wounded in the jail
at Palmetto, Ga, by an armed mob of 200
men. On the 23d of March seven coiored
men were lynched at Little River, Ark.
| They were charged with murder, although
| in reality but one of them was concerned
| in the crime On the same day three col
ored men were lynched in Silver City,
Miss. The 2Sth of April, at Hillsboro,
Tex, Tom Robinson was lynched on the
charge of assault. He died protesting his
| innocence.
Since the first day of January there
have been twenty-eight cases of lynching
in the South that have come under our
notice, and every one of them colored men.
| This wholesale numbering Of our people is
not only a monstrous wrong and an un-
warranted outrage upon them, but demor-
alizing to the white race. 1t terrorizes and
unmans the former, who, denied voice IN
public affairs and reduced almost to state
| of serfdom, with ambition to rise in the
world and even hope to obtain better con-
ditions destroyed, are restive and dissatls-
fed II familiarizes the latter with law
| lessness and crime, creating in them con-
tempt for lawful authority and desire for
mob rule. 1t is hurtful and destructive TO
the best interests of both. We deplore,
condemn, and denounce in unmeasured
terms criminal assaults upon women by
whomsoever committed, and desire the ap
prehension and legal punishment of every
criminal guilty of the crime. All We ask is
| that the regular machinery of justice be
employed and the accused given fair and
| impartial trial-the course pursued with
white men charged with the same offence.
In all. the States named your people
are in large majority, except two, and
! in all of them you are in absolute control.
Every branch of the government-execu-
| tive, legislative and judicial-is in your
hands The judges are all white men, and
the juries are almost exclusively composed
of white men. Colored offenders have little
| chance for escape when guilty of petty
offence. and If guilty of serious crime
| their conviction is certain. This fact is
known to all men. There is, therefore,
not the slightest excuse or justification fdf
resort to mob violence against colored
criminals.
1T is an open secret that many of the
State governments of the South have been
seized and held by force on the plea that
| it was necessary to preserve white civili-
zation and good government and maintain
/ white supremacy. Southern white men
have asserted upon the floor of both
| houses OF Congress, upon the rostrum, in
their pulpits, and through their press that
they were the best friends of the colored
race and would treat them fairly and pro-
tect them in all their rights and privil-
eyes, under the law, If they were let alone.
The country accepted these declarations
and relegated the colored people of the
| South TO their custody and care, and We
| appeal to you to make good these asser-
tions Of friendship for the race and demon
| strate your claim to superior civilization
and ability to rule by the enforcement of
the law and the protection OF citizens, ire
spective of color, in your respective Com
| monwealths. II the men who organize
mobs and commit the savage acts which
characterize them expect in this way to
suppress the crime of rape or any other
heinous offence, history affords them but
little hope of success. Severity OF punish
ment has had no effect in decreasing crime.
Inhuman and barbarous methods have no
terror for criminals. The old methods Of
torturihg and executing violators OF the
law by boiling in oil, burning at the stake.
breaking on the wheel, dismemberment,
the ingenious instruments OF torture used
TO force confession by testing the limit Of
human endurance the horrors of the
Spanish inquisition, not only signally
failed to repress or diminish crime but
were equally impotent to change even re
ligious belief
AT the beginning of the present century
over l65 offences were punishable by death