Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1923-02-10
sponsible for Blair's last-minute re-

SPOuSiDle LOT blalT Ihe5t-miuute TO
lease from the mob which held him.
Talking to representative Of The
New York Age Blair told the follow,
ing story of the affair, including an
account OF what he believes to have
! been the incident leading up to his %.
ing taken from his car and thrown In
to Jail.
Blair's car, for New York. and anotN
er Pullman car. routed to Cincinnati,
were on a siding Mt Plant City. Hills.
borough county, Fla, OH the night Oh
January %. A party Of white people.
two women and a man came up III
Blairs car and made inquiry concern.
ing passage to a certain town in Geor
gia. The women were accompanying
the body OF n relative to this Georgia
town for burial and the man with them
was an undertaken. Blair politely in
formed them that his car did not pass
through the town named, but that the
other car. en- route to Cincinnati would
take them there.
ARGUMENT WITH WOMEN.
Going to this car, the party OF
would-be travellers, according to Blair
who escorted them demanded that they
he given each lower berth. This re-
quest the porter declared he was I'M
able TO comply with. since the parties
had not procured railroad tickets and
there was no way by which he. the por
ter. could tell as to what reservations
had previously been made for his car.
The whites were fnsistent, however.
and when Blair left to return to his
own car one Of the women was engag
ed In worfy argument with the Gin
cinnati porter
A short while after he had returned
TO his car. Blair saw the two white wO-
men and white man hurrying away
from the Cincinnati car. Within a
short period of time, the train for
which the Cincinnati car was being
held. came in and the Pullman carry
ing the porter who had had the argu-
ment with the white women was TAX
en- away on it's journey toward the
North.
1t was fully an hour and half lac-
er. near midnight when the train for
which Blair's car had been waiting.
came along, and started him OH his
trip Three hours later. when his train
had traversed the good1y stretch OF
Florida land that lay between Plant
City in the south and Waldo in the
north. a posse of six alleged officers
boarded the train mt the latter point
and demanded Of the conductor that
the Pullman porter be turned over to
them as he was charged with assault
ing two white women at Plant City.
The colored man protested his inno-
cence and pointed out that his car had
not left Plant City until an hour and
half after the alleged occurrence.
and the fact that he had not been dis
turbed before leaving that point in it
self indicated his innocence But his
pleas were in vain.
PULLMAN CONDUCTOR
PROTESTED
And the protests Of the Pullman con
ductOr were also in vain. That official
demanded in strong terms that the Dor
ter be not interferred with but the
Seaboard Air Line train conductor.
himself southern white man, sliced
with the armed crowd and turned
Blair over to the alleged officers. The
unfortunate fellow was taken then to
the Waldo Jail. an i1l-kept ramshack;s
hut-like structure where he was kent
all day without either food or wa:er.
Their about s O'Clock that night the
mob got in its work. Breaking into the
1all an easy job. the crowd seized Blair
and hustled him out of town for the
purpose of stringing him up. AS told
above. he was beaten, blindfoIded and
the rope brought into play for the car
ry!ng out of the mob's sinister idea CT
administering justice. 1t was the Flori
Ola white mans idea of justice, how
ever as administered by mob of hun
dreds to alone. unarmed, defenceless
Negro. thousands of miles away from
home and friends.
In some way, the sheriff Of Alachua
county became aware Of Blair's limo,
cence, and the latter believes that in
formation came to the sheriff that the
other porter had been apprehended at
some point on his route either in Flori
da or Georgia. However that may be.
the sheriff convinced the mob thar
their victim was not the man they
thought he was and so secured his re-
lease. 1t is not chronicled, however
that any of the vioIators of the law.
engaged in the contamination of a
| criminal act, were apprehended or
| even threatened with arrest. The Aluc.
hua county official evidently thought
| that he was winning a halo of glory
and honor by rescuing the innocen,
Negro And his thought is not to be dis
puted either. for he might much more
easily have let the fellow swing.
While i'm the Waldo jail. Blair had
been relieved Of his watch and all Of
his money. and when released by the
mob he was penniless. The would-be
'ynchers had taken him three miles
out In the country and this distanc,
he had to make on foot. In part atone
Tent for the indignities and torture.
undergone, some member Of the moi
gave Blair 80 so for railroad fare Il
Jacksonville and an extra so cents 70,
something to eat. Grateful that his lie,
had been spared the porter made hi,
way to the station where finally
train was boarded for Jacksonville
thence on back to New York.
Blair vows that even though he stay,
In the Pullman service all the rest O
his iife. his southern trips must en-,