The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-05-04
Nagging de Niggah

and biggest inland cotton market--a
story involving young Negro whose
1.-THE and clean body was hanged to
a telegraph pole down in the Ozark
Mountains. Originally the black, who
was 10 years old, had been accused of
stealing corn from another black. But
that was inconsequential. Then he
was accused of stealing furs and ami
mails from a silver fox ranch, owned
by white man. Although the situa-
ton then took on serious proportions,
since a white man was involved, the
rancher could not stir up enough
wrath to bring about lynching and
he could not produce sufficient evil
denGe, even in the South, to cause
the Negroes arrest.
But he succeeded in destroying a
reputation easily slain--that of a
Negro. Thus, when a white girl, aged
nine, disappeared from the hills,
young Toni call him that, as l
cannot recall his real name-was
charged with raping and then killing
the child. Without much ado, with
out questioning, without efforts hav-
ing been made to ascertain the facts,
without trial, Tom was torn from his
cabin, around which grew the corn he
was raising for his livelihood, was
dragged through the hills, over rocks
and stones, and hanged, torn figure,
to the pole. And when the district
attorney of the county was asked
what he was going to do about it, he
replied, naively, yet with finality:
"NO-AccOunt, anyways"
"They amt much we kin do. We
don know witch fallers wuz in on the
lynchin, an besides, he wuz no
account niggah, anyways"
And illustrating the effect on the
Negro: A young Southern lady, full
of the Southerner's pride of the South,
and a worker for the estimable Red
Cross of Memphis, who accepted my
wife and myself despite our atheistic
and Northern views, finding in us a
new sort of audience to her fund of
Negro stories which she was so fond
of telling because they illustrated her
humane and social scientific activ-
tiles, and thereby her rare ability, re-
tailed this one-not privy to the fact
that it was an arraignment of her and
her kind:
One day, a much harassed and fear
full Negro entered the Red Cross office
and pleaded that the workers therein
help him out of a dilemma, which in
volved a debt, white farmer and
threat of Jail for the black. Our
young lady promised to help him, to
arbitrate with the white man and to
obtain more time for his paying of
the debt. This entailed a trip to
suburb of Memphis, where the farmer
reigned liege lord over the descen-
dands of his ancestors slaves and ex-
slaves. In her Ford, the Red Cross
worker took the black to the suburb,
deigning to accept his fulsome COM
pany. 1t was day after severe
rain storm, the first in many weeks
of drouth, and the dried dirt of the
country roads was slippery mud.
Especially was it slippery and
dangerous on steep hill that they
had to traverse in order to reach their
destination. To avoid accident they
had to get out of the automobile and
walk.
A few feet from the top of the hill,
the Red Cross lady found that her
French heels and her automobile legs
were not equal to the task before
them-the mud was too menacing, the
hill was too steep. There was the
danger of a twisted ankle or broken
collar-bone or worse.
"Hey, niggah," she called to the
black walking few PAGES behind her,
in approved Negro-to-white attitude,
"give me hand, and help me down
the HILL"
The Lesson of Fear.
"Lawdy, lawdy, Teddy" cried the
Negro in alarm, eff ah was to give
y'all a haind and y'all was to slip
wheah would ali be? Aid jest
natch'ly be lynched an no questions
asked"
She demonstrated with him.
"No, no, Teddy, abs 'fraid. They
amt no white men round heah naow,
nohow, but jest y'all let 'em see a
white Teddy git hurt in a niggah's
comp'ny an den dey'd pear fun no
wheah."
And all the way down the hill, as
the Teddy clumsily and fearfully made
slow descent, he importuned her not
to slip, looked about furtively in
panic, hoped that she would not fall.
"Y'all's got nah life in yoh hands,
Teddy. Y'all see, don'cha, dat eff y'all
was to fall an ah was to trah to help
y'all---does white men simply wouldn'
understan' an think ah was-wal, ah
was tryin'--y'all see, don'cha. All
suah would be lynched."
Thus, has the Negro learned his
lesson of fear.
Ernn P1hIicitv for Now