The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1925-01-12
SHOOT, TORTURE
And THEN HANG
YOUNG negro
Left in SnOw Shot Thru
Stomach

NEW YORK, Jan. 1.-THE
sensational true story of the
lynohing of 15-year-oId Sammie
Smith, a Negro boy, in Nash
vile, Tenn, Is being told by
Walter F. White, assistant secre-
tary of the National Association
for the Advancement of CoIored
People.
Whites report is the result of
his own investigation of the
lynching in Nashville, Sammie
was dragged from the Nashville
general hospital where he was
chained to bed MORALLY wound
ed. The masked mob took him
to the country, hung him to an
oak tree and fired 40 or S
rounds Of buckshot into his
abdomen.
Supported Large Family.
White saw the body's body lying in
its coffin in the Fifth Avenue Baptist
church, Nashville and tells the story
given him by Nashville colored peo-
pie: Until last May. Sammie worked
for white man named Preston Lee
at Smyrna, Tenn, or 10 miles from
Nashville. One day in that month
Lee beat Sammie Smith. Sammie
quit and went to Nashville where he
got job with the Atlantic Ice CON-
nenv All cuyoroar he 1,,o.1.aa 81.
turning over his wages to his mother
to help provide for the mother and
nine children. Cold weather came and
Sammie was discharged. He lived al
ternately with his uncle, Eugene
Smith, and grandmother at AIRING
ton.
Sammie and his uncle went to
Nashville in the uncle's Ford on Dec.
IL. Coming back the machine went
into ditch and turned. The man and
boy righted it, but found part brok-
en-. The uncle went back to a gar
age. Sammie started later to find
Eugene and met him coming towards
the car with a white man holding a
gun to his back. The garage man
had caught Eugene stealing the need
ed part. When the man found that
Sammie was with Eugene, he shout
ed to the boy:
Shot Thru Stomach.
"Then come along with me-I'm 60
ing to put you in Jail too" Sammie
took out his gun and fired. The white
man returned fire and shot Sammie
thru the stomach. Sammie lay in the
field unconscious all night and was
taken to the Nashville general. hospi-
tai in the morning and chained to
bed, altho his wound was fatal. A
band of masked men entered the hos
pital after midnight Monday, covered
the custodian with guns, searched for
Sammie, sawed thru his chain, and
lynched him.
White declares that Nashville col
ored people have been subjected to
insults and cruelties, es-
pecially Immediately before the lynch
ing. Colored women are struck on
street cars. A colored man was muir
uSASu W q NhAtc ulfShSSpoI WIZ goes |
unpublished. A pullman porter was
shot by Lem Motlow, distillery owner
of Kentucky, who was acquitted of the
murder charge.
Khan Lynched Him.
The ku klux khan is strong near
Nolensville, scene of the lynching, |
White reports. Asked why the 15-year-
old victim carried gun, people in ev-
cry instance used the same words to
White: "Tbe khan White |
gave the names of four white men |
who called on Sammie in the hospital
and told him he would never live |
even If his wound was not fatal to
Governor Peay, Mayor Howse, Sheriff
Briley, Chief Of Police Smith and the
Nashville chamber of commerce. mo
clues" are found by authorities, in
spite Of large awards offered.
II talked with one of the most
prominent colored men of Nashville"
says White. "'They might as easily
have offered a Million he said cyni-
cally. They know they'll never have
to pay any of it,"