The forum. [volume] (Springfield, Ill.) 1904-192?, 1917-05-12
WRONG ON FACTS
ABOUT LYNCHINC
Julian Streets Views Provoke
Heated Discussion.
STATEMENT OF CONDITIONS

Miss Rachel e. Guy, Plueky Washing
ton schooltescher, Makes Sweeping
Reply to Article on the Nesro--Atlan-
Ia Riots and Georgia Supreme Court
Records Cited In the Controversy.
Miss Rachel E. Guy who is u mem
her of the Afro-American Historical as
ISOLATION in Washington and also a
public schoolteacher, has written the
following open letter to Julian Street
anent Mr.. Streets article entitled 1.-The
Negro" which recently appeared In
Golfers Weekly:
Dear Mr.. Street, have read with
great interest and more than once your
article The Negro appearing In Col
lier's for Jan. q. That you meant to
be sincere is plain. That you believe
you have been impartial is evident.
You have succeeded In being the for
mer. You have failed utterly AS to the
latter.
ITO explain. In your Facts About
Lynching' you say, 1T was In this brief
but terrible period reconstruction,
that the Negroes dream of political
equality, which seemed to him to have
been realized, surpassed itself in his
poor, confused mind and became an
utterly impossible dream of social
equality, including the ultimate blend
ing of the two races by intermarriage.
Further, TO such dream in the Negro
mind may, you believe, be traced many
Of the atrocious Negro crimes against
white women Not word, Mr. Street,
of the 'atrocious crimes Of white men
against black women.
IF intermarriage was and is the Ne
gro's dream, then in places where he
may marry white, II he pleases, he has
not sought In any numbers to make
the dream real. Here, in Washington,
with a population of nearly 100000 col
ored people, and in other cities north,
east and west, the proportion of mixed
marriages is negligible.
Theoretical Discussion Of Lynching.
you pass lightly over the number of
innocent men and women brutally
shot, hanged and burned. You discuss
the reasons for lynching theoretically
and with palliation. You speak of the
Atlanta riots of some years ago, of the
indiscriminate killing of colored people
ON the streets Of that city as being a
'ghastly but effective remedy for a Sc
ries of attacks of Negroes upon white
women Mr.. Street, you err When
has the wanton killing of innocent
men, women and children ever deferred
any rapist? Has lynehing. the soul
sickening, horrible burnings of the
southern black men by southern white
men, stopped any brute. be he black or
white?
But there is another side to the At
lanta massacre, side that the white
southern press suppressed, a side that
white Atlanta guards and keeps quiet,
a side that colored Atlanta knows, and
that is the fact that investigation dis
closed that not one woman could be
found who had been attacked that
the series of attacks were ehimeras Of
prejudice mad brains. Surely you did
not know, Mr. Street; you were not
told, you did not investigate the court
records to find out that for this saw
agery the black men took tooth for a
tooth and an eye for an eye. Have
you noticed that no colored man has
been lynched In Atlanta since that
time? Well, If you haven't 1t would
interest you greatly to get on the in
side of that question. / assure you 1t
will more than repay you for your
pains.
you quote the Encyclopaedia Britain
Mica as saying that 'colored people
nearly always shield criminals of their
own race against whites In Gods
name, who would not, when colored
people of some parts of the south know
that for the slightest misdemeanor one
of their number may be taken out to
furnish souvenirs In the form of
charred human flesh, bones and teeth
to an exulting, yelling mob of bar.
barous whitesf IL the Cabling, eaek.
ling. shrill laughter of the Negro as be
squats on the curb with others of his
kind-if these strange sounds empha-
size peculiarly the affinity that exists
between Negro and a mule SO the
swoop of a southern mob with torch
and rope emphasizes peculiarly the
affinity that exists between a south
ern white man and gulture. vul.
ture that tears out and rends the heart
of Its victim and feasts upon its mutt
lated carcass In ghoulish glee.
Cause OF Noneonvletlon Of Lynehers.
BESIDES. you admit that southern
iuries cannot and VIII not convict
their Iynehers. because every one In d
county knows every one else. many Of
the families are related. they therefore