The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1902-09-26

Birmingham. Ala, Sept. 19.-In an
awful crush of humanity caused by a
stampede In Shiloh negro Baptist
Church, at Avenue and Eighteenth
street, tonight, between sixty and
seventy persons were killed and as
many more seriously injured.
The calamity occurred at clock,
lust as Booker T. Washington had con-
cluded his address to the National Con-
vention of Baptists, and for three hours
the scenes around the church were in
desert bable. Dead bodies were
strewn in every direction and the
service of the city was
utterly inadequate to move them I'M
til after l o'clock a. m. The injured
were first looked after and dozens of
dead bodies were arranged in rows
on the gound outside the house of
worship, awaiting removal to the va
rious undertaking establishments.
while more than score were laid out
ON the benches inside.
The church is the largest house OF
worship for negroes in Birmingham,
and the pastor says there were at least
2. 600 persons in the edifice when the
stampede began. Instructions had
been issued to allow no one else to en-
ter, but the negroes forced their way
inside the building and were standing
in every aisle. The entrance was lit
orally packed.
FIGHT CAUSED 1T.
Just as Booker T. Washington con-
cluped his address Judge Billion, me-
gro lawyer from Baltimore, engaged in
an alteration with the choir leader
an unoccupied seat, and 1T
ia said a blow was struck. Some one
in the choir cried "They re fight
ing. ? Mistaklng the word lighting"
for fire" the congregation rose en-
masses and started for the door. One
of the ministers quickly mounted the
rostrum and admonished the people to
keep quiet.
He repeated the word quiet sever
al times and motloned to his hearers
to be seated. Again the excited con
gregation mistook the word quiet
for fire and rushed pell-mell for the
door.
TRAMPLED UNDER FOOT.
Men and women crawled over bench
es, fought their way into the aisles
and those who had fallen were tram
pied upon like cattle. The ministers
tried again to stop the stampede, but
no power on earth could stay the strug-
Cling fighting mass of humanity. The
screams of women ana children added
to the horror of the scene, and,
through mere fright, many persons
tainted, and as they fell to the floor
were crushed to Death.
IN A DEATH TRAP.
The level of the floor is about fifteen
feet from the ground and long steps to
the sidewalk from the lobby just out
side the main auditorium. Brick walls
extend on each side of these steps for
six or seven feet and this proved YER
liable death trap. Negroes who had
reached the top of the steps were push
ed violently forward and many fell.
Before they could move others fell upon
them and in fifteen minutes persons
were piled upon each other to height
of ten feet. This wall of struggling hu-
man beings blocked the entrance and
the weight of fifteen hundred persons
was pushed against it. More than
twenty persons lying on the steps
underneath the heap OF bodies DIED
from suffocation.
Two white men who were in the rear
of the church when the rush began
escaped, and realizing the seriousness
of the situation, rushed to a corner
near by and turned in fire alarm.
The department came quickly and the
arrival of the wagons served to scat
ter the crowd which had gathered
around the front of the church. A
squad of police was also fastened to
the church and with the firemen final
ly succeeded in releasing the negroes
from their pinioned positions in the
entrance. The dead bodies were quick
ly removed and the crowd inside, find
ing an outlet. came pouring out.
Scores of them lost their footing and
rolled down long steps to the pave
ment, sustaining broken limbs and IN
ternal injuries.
SICKENING SIGHT.
In an hour the church had been
cleared and the sight
which greeted the eyes of those who
had come to aid the injured was sicKen-
ing. Down the aisles and along the
outside of the pews the dead bodies OF
men and women were strewn and the
cries of the MANNED and crippled was
art-rendering. In few minutes
the work of removing the bodies was
begun and the walls OF the relatives
Of the dead who had waited ON the
outside could be heard for several
blocks.
The Shiloh church is located just in
the edge of the South Highlands, the
residence section OF this
section, and all the physicians living
in that part of town went to the as.
of the injured. AS many of
the suffering negroes rs could be NOV
ed by the ambuiances were taken to
hospitals and the rest were LAID out
on the ground and there the phhysi'
,;ans attended them. At least fifteen
Df those brought out injured died
before they could be moved from the
ground.
BOOKER WASHINGTON UNHURT.