Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-05-16
NATION ASKED TO
STOP SLAYING OF
INNOCENT MEN
Lynch Law Takes Lives of
Thousands, Association
Tells Attorney General

Colored People, through its Secre-
tary, John R. Shillady, of New
York, issued the following statement
Sto-day in the form of an open let
ter to Attorney General Gregory
commenting on the latter's recent
address to the executive committee
of the American Bar Association in
which the Attorney General urged
an educational campaign against
lynch law and mob violence.
In the press of May 6 and May
Z there is reported an address said
to have been delivered by you to
the Executive Committee of the
American Bar Association in which
YOU urged an educational campaign
against lynch law. Such a campaign
is sorely needed In the press reports
of your address to the Bar Asso-
citation reference to individual cases
is wholly to mob violence occasioned
by public resentment of alleged Ger
man propaganda. In one part of
your address you say, very truly,
that unless the hysteria which re-
suits in the lynching of men is
checked it will create a condition of
lawlessness from which we will suf-
fer for a hundred years.
We would most respe ctfully call
to your attention the fact that this
condition of lawlessness which you
apprehend and from which you be-
lieve we will suffer for a hundred
years unless steps are taken imme-
diately to check it, is now and has
been in existence for many years
10 al
negroes. Since 1885 between 5000.
and 1000 cases of lynching have
been reported. Recently this asso-
citation caused one of it's staff to
make a careful investigation of the
files of the Chicago Tribune, the
New York Tribune and other daily
papers, magazines and books, for
the purpose of compiling informa-
ton in detail concerning lynchings.
The compiler has found only three
instances in which lynchers have
been punished. In two of these cases
the victim of the mob was white.
In the third case, that of a particu-
larly atrocious murder of Ten
nessee farmer and his two daugh-
ters, the lynchers were two young
and friendless white boys.
Many Unjustly Murdered
"Since the United States entered
the war on April 2, 1917. our infor-
nation is that 219 negro men, wom-
en- and children have been killed and
lynched by mobs in addition to two
white men, one of these being Rob-
ert Prayer. Four negroes were
lynched in Alabama, two in Arkan-
sas, one in Florida. seven in Georgia,
one in Kentucky, eleven in Louisi-
ana, three in Mississippi. one in
North Carolina. two in Oklahoma,
two in South Carolina. five in Ten
nessee, nine in Texas. two in Vir-
sinia, one in West Virginia and one
in Wyoming. In addition to these
cases of lynching per Sc, 175 men,
women and children were tortured,
burned and killed at East st. Louis
in July, 1917, and three negroes
we're killed by mob at Chester, Pa,
in September, 1917. In some of these
cases the lynchings were particularly
atrocious. In Tennessee. for eX-
ample, three men were burned at
the stake, the burnings being accom-
panied by savage torturing. In one
case, which occurred two weeks
ago, the body of the victim was
burned at the stake after having
been lynched by hanging.
I'm the case of the negroes who
have been lynched no question of
loyalty to their country has been
raised in any case. The crimes of
which Iney were dCCuSeu were OIul-
nary crimes for which courts do
now and have always provided ade-
quate remedies and certain punish
ment. Furthermore, these negroes
were not men and women (for cow
ardly mobs lynch women as well as
mem of wealth and position with
opportunities through the engage
ment of learned counsel to secure
delays in trial or mitigation of pun
s.I,t httf hoy fno
poor, the friendleSs. and we regret
to say, the despised.
Ask For Action
THE association regards s signif-
cant the pronounCement which you
have made as Attorney General. We
would most respectfully suggest to
YOU the expediency of making a sec
ond pronouncement in the name of
your high office, or better still, it
would be desirable that this pro-
nouncement be made in the name of
the President of the United States,
calling not alone upon the lawyers
of the country but upon the Gov
ernors of states, sheriffs of counties
and the citizens of local communi-
ties to assert their regard for the
laws of the nation which is now
calling upon these citizens to fight
TO make the world safe for demo-
cratic government One hundred
thousand of the best colored youth
of the land have responded to the
call of the country and are prepar-
ing to give their lives in it's defense
and in support of the cause upon
which it is embarked. They. in COM
mon with their many millions of
white fellow citizens. have the right
to believe that while they are risk
ing, and If need be, sacrificing their
lives for their country, that their
country through it's highest spokes-
men should call upon officers sworn
to obey the law to make an honest
effort to prevent the disgraceful
practice of lynching negroes when
ever it suits a mob to engage in this
exercise.
We would further call your at
tention to the fact that not even the
contention can be maintained that
these lynchings are the result of un-
controllable- anger at the perpetra-
ton of unmentionable crimes
against women. The facts show
that at least three-fourths of all
lynchings in recent years have had
nothing to do with attacks upon the
person of white women, but on the
contrary, the lynched negroes have
been accused of all kinds of crimes
from serious ones to the most trivial
offenses.
From the best information avail
pie to this association, 1t can assert
Without equivocation that the color
cd naop1a Of the nation are IoVa1 IN