The Dallas express. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1893-1970, 1921-07-02
between Georgia and East st. Louis.
where Lynehipas Occur.

between Georgia and East st. Louis.
Where Lynchings Occur.
1T Is instructive to note where most
lynchings take place. In thirty years
the seven states which led in lynch
ing, are in the order OF their evil
Louisiana, Alabama. Arkansas and
Tennessee. Along with Alabama, Geor-
gla and Texas. therefore. we have the
great southern Mississippi Valley. a
region which might be termed the
American Congo"
THE quest OF this Congo is not for
rubber and ivory. but for cotton and
sugar Here labor II forced. and the
leborer Is slave The slavery Is n
cunDinRly contrived debt slavery 70
1--WE the appearsnce of civilization md
no sar"tion NJ law. a debt IF few
hundred dollars NAV tie a black man
~rd hts family of ten ~ securely in
BONDAGE TO great white planter as
" hA Ind purchssed their bodies.
THE only way for this debt slave
IN ret get free from such master
is N ret some one else to paw this
debit that is. to sell himself TO anoth-
err with added charges. EXPENSES OF
moving and bonuses. BY this method
the enslaver gets his bondmen cheaper
than In y regular slave system. for
In the debt system he does not have
to pay the full market price Of q
man.
This is the system that obtains in
the great Mississippi Valley. and II
responsible for all Of the massacres
Of colored people and for nearly all
~ the horrible lynchings and burn
ings Of Individual Negroes that have
lately taken place in this region.
IF we examine any, even the most
complicated. Of these race troubles
we win find some economic wrong
at the bottom some trouble abouot
wages or work or property The ex-
istence side by side of two races one
powerful and the other weak. simply
lends greater opportunity and freeT
play to human greed and social in
Justice.
The Han On Negro Prosperity.
ut Is therefore Ineligible that
when race riots break out, especially
in the South. the prosperous and
''-o'i-to-do Colored mon who own
business and property. the really most
''0rtN while members Of their race
are the ones most likely IN he forced
70 i""-" the community. Thew NAV he
compelled 10 abandon all their nroner-
- @0st-hoste 70 ret away with their
lives. and not being allowed to re-
turn. thew must sell out Mt q great
ioss, Sometimes when these Colored
families are in position to offer
sonne defiance TO the mob. the Officers
Of the law will take hand. because
ns the law they can dare more than
the mob. A committee of prominent
citizens. sometimes including the Nav
or or the chief of police or the sheriff
will call on the Colored man and
warn him to leave. either openly es-
claring their inability to restrain the
mob.
when a Colored family is thus
driven out or exterminated, prominent
mention is alawys made of their pros
perity' as an indirect emphasis or
their general offensiveness.
Rape and LynchIng.
"One of the most successful illusion.
the opinion that the extraordinarS
disposition to lynch Negroes in the
United states is due to some extra.
ordinary tendency Of the men Of thai
race to commit rape. We call this f.
believed by many. II not by most, white
| people, But facts and evidence point
In the opposite direction-that Afri-
cans and their descendants are ex.
lar violence.
The appeal has been wonderfully
successful. 1t Is an old ruse of the
oppressor. He must find a motive thai
will Justify him in the moral senti'
ments of his people.
But II should be noted that in the
United States the most awful slaugh
ter and lychings of Colored persons
in the last few years have not beer
occasioned by any matter of sex ;th'
massacre at St Louis (Ill.) in 1917
the multiple lynchings of Brooks ant
! l4owndes Counties (Ga.) in 1918; the
Chicago riots in 1919; the Elaine
! (Ark.) massacre in 1919; and the
\ (Ark.) in 1921.
Glass Rule The Cause.
Most of the lynching evil is trace.
| able to economic wrong. There Is &
conviction that the Negro as a class
is to be kept under in human society
that when a black man works anC
sweats, 1t Is not primarily for his
dominant race in America. This is
| class feeling. 1t is the offspring OF
the slave system. If the Negro at
tempts to rise above this condition, he
is SHINING against God and must be
repressed aternly and religiously. The
Negro who by thrift and hard work
rises above this preconceived status
becomes an offender like one who is
seeking to violate the sanctions of q
relation.
There must be a change in this
attitude toward Colored Americans be-
fore we can be free from lynching
Government and law can do much
but they cannot do everything as a
tne Negro for the benefit of anybody
else must be wiped out"
The Civil Liberties Union states
thar the reports which come to its
office from all over the country show
that there is an increasing tendency
IN southern Industrial centers for
white workers to make common cause
win COlored. The Union asserts that
civil rights in the South can be
won in fact only by the united efforts
of both black and white workers in
the struggle against industrial ex-