The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1899-05-01
REACTION OF LYNCH LAW.
Rev. w. Bishop johnson Delivers 4
Threatening Prophecy.

Threatening Prophecy.
The Second Baptist Church, colored, was
crowded last night with an audience gath
cred to hear sermon by the pastor w.
Bishop johnson, on THE Reactionary In
fiuences of Mob Law
'on the Sabbath day." said the speaker,
when the church bells were ringing in a
Christian community, negro. Sam Hose,
was lynched by party of citizens. while
mob looked on and applauded. This
man was burned at the stake. his fingers
and ears were cut of. and parts of his
body kept as relics. The crime of which
he was accused is the most heinous q man
can be guilty Of Another negro, i'm
plicated by the first, was lynched, in
All this was in the face of guarantees of
citizenship, courts Of law, and open
churches.
Appeals by men of reason only in
furiated the mob. This shows dangerous
state of affairs in this country. In the
South the creed of lynching is taught
at the ireside and handed down from
father to son. Lynch law has become our
national disgrace, and the cause OF wonder
to foreigners. who cannot understand how
a people tolerating it could engage in a
war for humanity. The system is heri-
tage of slavery. 1t produces moral cow
ards in the South and unless the better,
educated class rise up and oppose it, bad
and good must be classed together.
The results are the torch and the
midnight assassin. When a tree falls it
is because it has been dead for years. and
has only needed the storm TO expose its
rottenness nation and people are
the same Moreover, a country which
ignores the law VIII some day find itself
without law.
'.Friends of the lynched In Georgia banded
themselves for revenge, and | pause to say
right here that this shows that spirit OF
vengeance is broadcast in the land. and II
is the legitimate outcome of the outrages
which have been permitted against our
race. The great trouble is that there are
among ourselves negroes who sell our in
formation TO the white people for few
dollars.
1.-The new negro, since he has been edu-
Gated through schools and newspapers,
knows now the value of organization, and
secret organization. 1t would be possible
for us to rise up as a race in four hours.
Among the white people we are recognized
| as being all bad and they cannot con-
ceive that one of our women would give
her life to save her honor. But crimes OF
which we are accused are more frequently
committed by the other side, to prove
which you have only to look in the faces
| of any colored audience.
II say that the South, under her curses.
struggles to exist. No man desires to live
| in a country where he must carry his life
| in his hands; where the quiet OF the night
| is likely to be broken by bowling mobs.
No country can exist under such condi-
| lions, and all the progress the South has
made in the past twenty-five years is due
| to outside energy and character. In every
community where mobs have been allowed
to exist energy has disappeared.
What has Christianity done for the
South? Why does not the Church raise
its voice against these crimes? When l
look at the white people Of the United
States who fail TO recognize a man be-
cause he is black, refuse even TO sit next
| to him as some refused to sit by me at a
| funeral / recently attended. l tremble for
| that kind of religion. God will not always
keep his anger back. The reactionary in
| fiuences of mob injustice will thrust its
! fiery fangs into the very life of the coun-
try and will drag us all down into hell