Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1930-09-20
SAYS JOE
SIMPSON
The Lynching Evil

bounds of these united otates'
more than twelve Negroes who
in the greater number Of cases
were in the custody of the off,
GERS of the law, and who were
held on charges that we believe
could have, in the event they
were given a fair trial, been
proved groundless in the major
ity of cases.
A citizen of the United States
is supposed to be guaranteed
under the Constitution, a fair
and impartial trial by a jury OF
his peers. A man is consider
ed innocent until he is proved
guilty, the burden of proof rest
ing upon the state, even the
courts overstep their bounds
when they convict a man while
there exists a reasonable doubt
as to his guilt. What more can
be expected of mobs when they
observe almost daily the viola
ton of the basic laws of the
land by duly constituted author
ity?
The law enforcement machin-
cry of most of the states of the
union has broken down COM
pletely, as far as the Negro is
concerned, there is no protection
for him at any stage of the
game, he lives in jeapord" f"nn'
the cradle to the gr-. ue-
spite the numerous assurances
OF protection as laid down in the
constitution. The consensus of
opinion among American white
men today seems to be that the
provisions of the constitutions
do not apply to the Negro. To
consider the Negro as mere
chattel, as in the days of slav-
cry seems to be the order of the
day. This damable attitude is
slowly spreading throughout the
length and breadth of the Unit
ed States.
The Negro has served this
country in every military con-
flict in which it has been in
volved since the Civil War, at
no time has he rebelled against
the government of the United
States or any state of the union
since he obtained freedom, the
writer is therefore at a loss to
understand why the National
government and the states
which are the branches that re-
ceive their power and authority
from the National government
as a limb receives it's life from
the tree, invariably hand the
Negro a stone when he requests
bread.
T h e condition of which I
speak are known to all men,
from the highest official to the
lowest citizen, yet there is no
thing done by high officials to
alleviate these conditions, not
even a gesture made that would
give us one iota of hope that a
change for the better will be
Forthcoming. To our minds the
duty rests upon the president
and the congress to take the nee
essary steps to put an end to
these outrages, seeing that the
states, in most instances, have
proved themselves either made
quate or unwilling to protect the
lives of their citizens.
In most cases where men have
been lynched the National Guard
is called out either before or aft
err the lynching, it makes little
difference whether before or aft
er, yet none of the murderers are
ever apprehended and punished,
hundreds of guns and a plentiful
supple of ammunition is at the
command of the local officers
and the guardsmen, yet no men,
bers of the mobs are ever killed
Or wounded, the local officers are
always unable to identify any of
the members of mobs, yet any
of these officers on catching q
aeeting glimpse of a Negro GRIM
lnal in San Francisco can posi-
lively identify him in Maine in
a crowd of ten thousand, so to
speak.
Let it be remembered that the
Negro is not unmindful of these
things and that, in his feeble
way, he is asking that those in
will see to it that
something is done to put an end
to the heinous crimes that are
being committed against his
race in America. Unlike the
mobs who take the law in their
own hands and wreak venveance
upon those who they think have
done one of their number An in
jury, we employ peaceful means
in an an5navo,. m narsro 10 ,,pon