Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-09-30
OMAHA QUIET AS
FEDERAL TROOPS
PATROL STREETS

OMAHA, Neb., Sept. 29-After a
nine-hour battles Sunday, against
4 Sheriff Michael Clarke and his depu-
ties, during which an Omaha mob
set fire to the Jail and attempted
to lynch Mayor Ed P. Smith, the
mob succeeded in dragging William
Brown, a negro charged with as
sault upon a white girl, from the
jail, and hanged him from a nearby
electric pole.
The negro, according - the charge
against him, earlier in the week met
the girl and her escort, who was
crippled beyond the point of resist
ance, a few blocks from her home
in the southeast part of the city. He
held the couple up at the point of a
revolver, and, after robbing the man,
attacked the girl in his presence.
Later Brown was 'rrested ar > taken
to the city Jail where both the girl
and her escort identified him as the
guilty man, and it was also Stated
that the negro had confessed. He
was considered in safety Sat the Jail,
but an organized mob on Sunday set
out to get him.
The sheriff and his deputies sought
fire to it and it was soon seething
in flames, the lives Of hundreds Of
| other prisoners being endangered.
Martial law was declared in the
city today.
Sixteen hundred soldiers patrolled
the streets. Machine guns were
mounted in the vicinity of the counk-
house and in the negro district. Mobs
had dispersed and the situation APP
peared under control of the soldiers.
Summed up, results of eighteen
hours of riot rule in Omaha follow:
Will Brown, negro, identified by a
nineteen-year-o1dg girl as the man who
assaulted her, was lynched and his
body burned.
Francis Clancy was shot and killed
and fifty-six others injured.
| Mayor Edward Smith is in Sc
rious condition in hospital, suffer-
ing from injuries inflicted by the
mob.
Douglas county's courthouse, new
ly built at cost of $1,500,O0O, is in
ruins from fire.
Mayor Smith narrowly escaped the
fate Of the negro when he defied the
mob. His defiance, mumbled to the
the beating he had received, and with
the rope around his neck, was:
II will give my life if necessary,
but I'll not surrender the negro.
I'm going to enforce the law"
The mayors life was saved when
the rope was cut from his neck
while he was being lifted from the
ground.
TIvoc n l.
pital in an automobile Physicians
said today his condition was critical,
but that he, would probably recover.
!, When Mayor Smith regained con-
seriousness his first question of a
hospital attendant was: What did
they do with the colored MANI"
He was told
The mayor was unable to give a
coherent story of the mob's attack
on him. He had been on the roof
of the courthouse and had just
come down to ask the mob to obey
the law when he was seized
The mob, reports show, was com
posed for the most part of young
men and boys, but the police were
powerless to check them. Criticism
was heard today that there was g
, lack of leadership in the organiza-
ton of the forces combating the
mob.
Policemen, Beaten, Quit
From o'clock last night until
troops arrived this morning the mot
was in control of the town. Men
women and children filled the streets
around the courthouse. Pawnshops
and hardware stores were looted tc
obtain firearms and ammunition
Every policeman on the streets was
overpowered, clubs taken from them
and many seriously beaten.
, Sheriff Michael Clark and his
deputies successfully held the
crowd, bowling for the Negroes life
, at bay, until the courthouse was sci
aflfe. Gasoline was poured on the
first floor and the torch applied
Police extinguished this blaze, but
the mob obtained more gasoline anC
soon flames were shooting from the
first, second and third-story win.
dows while the crowd howled. The
jail was on the fifth floor.
Sheriff Clark took his prisoner tt
the roof in order to escape the hea
from the burning building. Nearly
a hundred other prisoners begged
the sheriff to placate the mobs
2 fury in order that they might b.
+ saved. The sheriff refused. Snip
ers from the mob were sent to the
roofs of nearby buildings and fired
on the little group huddled on thu
roof of the building. When fire
: men arrived they were overpoweret
: by the mob and their ladders taker
from them. Clark was forced t.
surrender his prisoner, who wa:
= taken down a ladder.
e wood Sends Troops
= The troops were ordered to the
a city by Major General Leonard
r Wood, commander of the central de
. partment
Major General Leonard Wood to
e ! day telegraphed Mayor Edward
Smith that he was en- route to Oma
J ha to take personal charge of rcgu
E lar army troops in charge here
r General Wood stated that he had or
T dcred additional troops from CAM
7 Grant, Ill, and Camp Funston, Kas.
q to entrain at once for Omaha. H
r will arrive Tuesday morning.
/. Brown was hung to nearby elsc
y trio light pole and his body riddfHt
with bullets.