Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1906-10-24
"rHE MASSACRE or NEGROES IN GEORGIA.

The Washington correspondent of tho
London (Eng.) Post, writing TO that
paper under date of September oath, has
the following to say in regard to the re-
cent unfortunate and doplorabie outbreak
of mob violence in Atlanta:
"The massacre of negroes by whites in
Atlanta on Saturday is worse than at first
reported. Sixteen blacks are known to
have been killed, while the bodies of
many of the dead were smuggled out of
the town to save them from indigni ties
at the hands of the uncomfortable whites.
"The Atlanta correspondent of the
Post, of this city, telegraphs: The out
break of last night was against the negro
race, and was marked by ali the savagery
which accompanies a racial eruption.
The Russians, when massacring the Jews
in Odessa, were not more cruel than the
Atlanta mob. Ordinarily Southern
mob goes after some particular negro,
and after finishing him washes it's hands
and becomes respectable. But last night
the mob was after all negroes, because
they were negroes
"There was no question of the negroes
guilt, the correspondent continues. AS
matter of fact, no one believes that a
single guilty negro was killed by the
mob, which was simply mad to kill. Ne
groes, quietly working at their trades,
"eTS ScI upon ny Ine IiES ssnu hiCk6Q TO
death, to crafty racial hatred.
"The details Of the massacre, which
are told at great length in the news
papers, are too CHASTITY to be repeated,
and read exactly like the reports from
Siedlce Of the murder of Jews by Rus
slams, and, to complete the parallel, in
Atlanta, as in Russia, the police sided
with the mob. One paper tells of a
patrol of twenty militiamen standing idly
by while negro was being dubbed to
death. The whites justify themselves by
saying that their women were in danger,
and point to numerous recent assaults.
sat this distance the facts are not
clearly ascertainable, but it is known
that the feeling against the black was
famed by the Atlanta newspapers. One
paper recently eulogiZed South Caro-
lima mob for having lynched two negroes
in the presence of the Governor, who was
trying to save them for legal execution,
and offered reward of one thousand
dollars for the lynching of a negro in
Atlanta. The papers urged whites to
take the law into their own hands and
fed their passion by giving great promi.
nence to crimes of negroes, some Of
whom were not guilty Of the offences
charged against them.
''This massacre Is one of the worst in
the long history of Southern race hatred
1t is denounced by the Northern press,
but the South cares little for public opin-
ion or the moral censure of the world
where negro is concerned"
This biased, prejudiced report of the
Atlanta trouble by the Was shington cor
respondent of the London Post has but a
semblance of foundation in fact. There
were five assaults upon white women by
negro men within the limits of Atlanta
and her suburbs within thirty-six hours /;
a mob, gathered, a negro rapist was
lynched; the mob increased, and gath
cred fury as it gained numerical strength !;
in all some twelve or fourteen negroes
were slain. There was no massacre of
negroes in Georgia." nor did their vio-
lence partake Of the nature of the massa-
Gre of Jews by Russians in Odessa. 1t
was bad enough in reality; but the Wash
ington correspondent-at such great
distance from Atlanta that "the facts
were not clearly ascertaiuable'-repor
ing for a paper 80 far distant as the Lon
don Post, could have better afforded to
have given what few facts were "ascer-
tainable," and at the same time drawn
less upon his imagination in likening the
Atlanta riot to the massacre of Jews in
Odessa.
Such reports as these are misleading;
especially so when sent to foreign papers
The people Of England know practically
nothing of our conditions here in the
Southern States, and such uAfair and
prejudiced accounts as the one repro
duced above are calculated to give an
entirely false impression of our people.
We cannot claim immunity from those
faults to which all humanity is heir; but
we do claim as honorable citizenship, as
high and clean civilization as any sec
ton of any country. Surrounded by the
same conditions, confronted with the
same demOniace crimes, the people of
any country, any section, would have
risen and become for the time uacontroll-
able. 1t is but human nature, and so
long as the cause continues the effect
must inevitably follow. The negro lives
here az peacefully as the white man so
long as he maintains his respectability; !;
when he transforms himself to a verita-
bic demon he is treated as such-by the
courts in most cases, but unfortunately
now and then by mobs. For every lynch
ing (the effecD that can be pointed out
we can point criminal assault or an
atrocious murder (the cause). The stua-
tion is reduced simply to the funda,
mental principle of cause and effect, and
thus it will remain until by some means
the cause is removed 1t may be that in
time the severity of the effect will re-
move the cause; it is an absolute cer-
tainty that the cause must go first, and
that now and hereafter, as heretofore
cause and effect will retain their relative
positions.
The closing paragraph of the Washing
ton correspondents article is a clear in
deX TO the whole. 1t teens with sec
tional prejudice and malice. We quote:
This massacre is one OF the worst in the
long history of Southern race hatred 1t
is denounced by the Northern press, but
the South cares little for public opinion
or the moral ccnSure of the world where