The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1902-09-24
AN AWFUL TRAGEDY
Resulting from Stampede in a Negro
Baptist Church.
PEOPLE TRAMPLED TO DEATH.

PEOPLE TRAMPLED TO DEATH.
A wild Panic and Mad Dash Cor Exit
Leaves Seventy-Eisht Dead
and Many More Seriously
Injured.
Seventy-eight known to be dead and
eighty injured, the ma ajurity perhaps
fatally, is the result ut a panic which
occurred in the Shiloh Negro Baptist
Church at Birmingham, Ala, Friday
night during the evening session Of
the Negro National Baptist Conven-
ton. Fifteen hundred delegates were
crowded into the church, which had
only seating capacity for four hun
dred, when the audience was thrown
into a stampede by conflict between
two Of the delegates in the rear OF the
church. The cries Of fight" which
followed, the audience mistook for an
alarm of fire. and in the wild effort
to escape seventy-eight persons were
crushed to death, eighty more receiv-
ing injuries, some Of which may prove
fatal.
The disaster occurred at 9 o'clock
just as Booker T. Washington had
concluded his address to the national
convention Of Baptists, and for three
hours the scenes around the church
were indescrlbable. Dead bodies were
streWn in every direction and the
ambulance service of the city was
utterly incapacitated to move them
until after ! o'clock a. N. The in
jured were first attended to and dozens
of dead bodies were arranged in rows
on the ground outside the house Of
worship awaiting removal to the un-
dertaking establishments while more
than a 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 1900 persons in the edlfce when
the stampede began. Instructions
had been issued to allow no one else
to enter after the building had been
filed, but the negroes forced their
way inside the church and we're stand
ing In every aisle, the entrance was
literally packed.
Just as Booker Washington con-
cluded his address Judge Billou, a
negro lawyer from Baltimore, engaged
in an alteration with the choir leader
concerning an uneccupied seat and it
Is said blow:waS struck. SoRe one
In the choir cried, They're fighting"
Missahng the word fighting" for
fire" the congregation rose en- masse
and started for the door. One Of the
ministers quickly mounted the ros-
trum and admonished the people to
keep quiet. He repeated the word
quiet" several times and motioned
to his hearers to be seated.
Again the excited congregation mis-
took the word quiet for second
alarm Of fire. and rushed for the door.
Men and women crawled over benches,
fought thei. way into the aisleS and
those who had fallen were brampled
upon like cattle. The ministers tried
again to stop the stampede, bub no
power on earth could stay the strug-
Cling, fighting mass Of humanity.
The screams Of women and children
added to the horror Of the scene and
from mere fright many persons faint
ed and as they fell to the floor were
crushed to death. The level of the
floor is about 100 feet from the ground
and long steps lead to the sidewalk to
the lobby just outside the main
auditorium. Brick walls extend on
each side Of these steps for six or seven
feet and this proved a veritable
death trap. Negroes who had reach
ed the top Of the steps were pushed
violently forward and many fell. Be-
fore they could move others fell upon
them and In q few moments persons
were piled upon each other to height
OF ten feet. This wall Of struggling
humanity blocked the entrance and
the weight Of $500 persons were push
ed against it. More than 20 persons
lying on the steps underneath the
heap Of bodies died from sufocation.
The dead bodies were quickly moved
and the crowd inside, finding an out
let came pouring out. Scores of them
lost their footing and rolled down the
long steps to the pavement, sustain
ing broken limbs and internal injuries.
In an hour the church had been prac-
tically cleared and the sight which
greeted those who had come to aid
the injured was sickening. Down the
aisles and along the outside OF the
pews the dead bodies of men and
women were ctrewed and the cries of
the manned and crippled was heart
rending. 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.
AS many Of the suffering negroes as
could be moved by the ambulances
were taken to hospitals and the rest
we're laid out on the ground and there
the physicians attended them. At
least Is Of those brought out injured
died before they could be moved from
the ground. During the stampede
Booker T. Washington and several
other prominent Negro leaders we're
on the stage and were unwilling wit
nesses to the frlghtful catatrophe.
None Of those in the choir or in the
-, In 40 lnocf E0r