The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-08-20

aSSaulI upon county school
 All of the wounded are white. there being two women. Most of the wounded were curiosity seekers who were standing to one side upon the courthouse lawn, which is elevated so feet above the street level at the corner where the jail stands
 The machine gun company of the 1l7th infantry, Tennessee national guard, was on duty at the jail. Halt dozen soldiers joined in the firing with their revolvers The machine suns were not put into operation.
 Following reports that the school teacher today had positively identi- fled Martin as her assaiiant. large crowds began gathering in the vi- cinity of the jail before dark to- night The jail had been under heavy guard of deputies, city police and national suardsmen all of Thurs day night, but crowds that night were smaller and more easily han died.
 Make Several Attempts
 Several times. beginning at o'clock the crowd started down the hill on Main street leading to the jail They were turned back twice by police. Efforts were made to hold them a block distant.
 Gradually some of the bolder ones edged down the street. There were probably 200 men and boys in the crowd gradually approaching the Jail. Several hundred other persons, many of them women, were in the courthouse yard looking down upon the scene. ff aNe
 As the crowd in the street came within loo feet, Sheriff Cate stepped under an arc light and demanded that they dispersc. He gave warn ing what an imaginary line between two poles should not be crossed.
 As a dozen men passed these
 poles. the sheriff picked up a
 shotgun and fired over the heads of the crowd into the mir. Four
 deputies who were with him then
 fired two svoiIcys. Two men in
 the courthouse yard and two or three in the street fired revolvers In reply.
 The shooting then became gen-
 craI. depntics firing as rapidly as i they could pump their repeating
 rhotguns.
 Many ofs the loads of buckshot l fired by the officers and intended to | go above the heads of the crowd in {, the street, went among spectat ators in the courthouse yard.
 / Sheriff Cate stated tonight that ] the first shot came from the court house lawn almost simultaneously with which several rocks were thrown from that hill one of them i striking Deputy Sheriff Charles Lewis, whereupon he fired over the ' heads of the crowds. His statement i was substantiated by Adj Gen. P. l.. Brummit, who hurried here from 1 Nashville, arriving tonight, and by I Capt.J. J. Schneider of the machine gun company.
 Crowd Driven Back
 Women screamed and men cursed. In the courthouse yard scores threw ! themselves to the ground to escape the hail of bullets coming in that direction. The crowd in the street ran back paaic-stricken and the dep- : uties charged, now firing over the heads of the crowd and driving all of them bacl; to Gay street, a block l from the jail.
 At ii o'clock a heavy detachment of police. summoned from their homes for riot duty, appeared ana ordered all automobiles from within radius of two blocks of the jail and dispersed the crowd. No one was allowed to pause within a block of the jail.
 At that hour it appeared that there I would be no further trouble.
 The local troop of national guard cavalry was mobiized but had not appeared on the scene at II o'clock r. On August 30, 1919, the Knox county jail was stormed and dyna- mited by a mob searching for Mau- rice Mayes, a negro accused of mur- dering white woman. Mayes had been removed during the afternoon l but the mob released many prison CTS, six of whom were charged with murder. Following that attack there was a general race riot over the city and two men were killed and 20 wounded before troops gained con trol of the situation,
 l Incidentally. Mayes is in the county jail tonight where he is held, pend I ing appeal from his second conviction | on the charge of murdering Mrs. Blr- die Lindsay, the first conviction ha ving been reversed by the supreme court.
 All of the wounded reside in Knox vile and immediate vicinity with the exception of Jess Childers of Elba Ala, wounded in hip and above an kIe. and H. W. Gleaves, aged 22. of Nashville, who was shot twice in each lleg, through the left thigh. through ithe left arm and in the back. Gleaves condition 10 grave.
 
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