The bystander., 1916-12-15
THE LATE ANTHONY CRAWFORD.
Murdered by mob Of white men at Ab-
bev!lle, s. c.. Oct p, 1916.

THE LATE ANTtON1 ChAWcONu.
Murdered by q mob Of white men at Alb
bev!lle, S. c.. Oct q, 1916.
if r. M. Burts of Abbeville to the office
and called on Coroner f. w. K. Nance
of Abbeville county to comply with the
law and furnish me with copy OF the
testimony taken at the coroner's in
quest. !, / found that the coroner, held
an inquest, but took no testimony.
II intend to do everything in my
power to uphold the law and let the
offenders know that such acts will not
be tolerated and that those guilty OF
violating the law must suffer for It,"
The lynching referred to occurred on
Oct. q in one Of South Cardinals most
beautiful and progressive cities. An
Klony Crawford, the victim, was Ne
gro fifty-one years old, worth over
$4,000. He got into row with
white storckeeper named Barksdale
over the price of cotton seed. 1t is re-
ported that Mr.. Barksdale called him
liar, and the Negro cursed him round
ly in return, whereupOn clerk ran out
to give Crawford beating with an AK
handle. He was saved from this by
policeman, who arrested Crawford and
took him 70 the municipal building,
but when they let him out on bail
crowd Of men took after him again, in
tent on Furnishing him for daring to-
curse white man.
1.-The day white man hits me Is the
day die" Anthony Crawford once
said to a friend. When he saw the,
crowd coming after him he went down
in the boiler room Of the gin, picked
up four pound hammer and waited.
The first man who came at him, Nc
Kinney Cam, received blow In the
head which fractured his skull. But
some one hurled stone, which knock
ed out Crawford before he reached
any one else. While he was down they
knitted him in the back and kicked him
until they thought they had finished
him, when they permitted the sheriff
to arrest the unconscious Crawford On
condition that he would not take his
prisoner out of town until they knew
whether Cam would live or die.
Cam wasn't hurt as badly as they
thought, but nevertheless mob went
back to the Jail at 4 o'clock that after
noon, dragged Crawford through the
streets of the Negro quarters with q
rope around his neck, hung his mu"
tilated body to a pine tree at the en-
trance to the fair grounds and expend-
ed a couple Of hundred rounds Of am
munltion on It.
A meeting was called in the Abbe-
vile courthouse, at which it was de-
cided to order the sixteen sons and
daughters Of Crawford and their fami-
lies to abandon their $4,000 home and
get out Of the state by Nov. Is. After
the meeting this mob closed up all the
Negro shops in Abbeville.
The Columbia State in a powerful
editorial pointed out that, in view Of
tho exodus Of Negro labor from the
south to northern industrial fields and
the approach Of the boil weevil, South
Cardinals problem was to keep her
colored men instead Of serving notice
on them that, no matter how indus-
trious or successful they might be-,
their case was hopeless. 1t convinced
the business men Of Abbeville that
they had lynched their own pocket
books. On Nov. 6 another meeting was
held in the courthouse, at which reso-
lutions were unanimously passed con-
demning the whole lynching project.