The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-10-19
Fight the Growing Lynch-Terror
and Persecution of Negroes
BY INTERNATIONAL LABOR DEFENSE


THE shooting OF Willie Peterson in the county
Jail at Birmingham, Ala. and the murder of
John Crawford and Edward Jackson at an I'M
employed demonstration in Cleveland, O.. are the
latest bloody crimes in the mounting, murderous
terror of the rich white ruling-clas against the
oppressed Negro masses and against the entire
working-class.
Peterson, an unemployed Negro miner and eX-
serviceman who had been vainly trying to get
into the U. S. government hospital for veterans
to secure treatment for tuberculosis, is the latest
victim of the brutal boss campaign to frame-up
murder, and terrorize Negroes, following the
murder of two society women Augusta Williams
and Jennie Wood, early last August This Ne
gro worker was deliberately shot in jail by Dent
Williams white lawyer, brother of Augusta and
Nell Williams, at conference attended by city
and county officials and members of the fam
lilies of the slain girls" Williams fired five
times sending two bullets into Peterson's chest
and one into his arm, in the presence of sheriff
Hawkins. police chief McDuff, and other capt.
aliSt officials.
Ruling Glass Officials Responsible
The responsibility of these 'upholders of law
and order'-captalst lynch law and terrorist
orders fully proved by their exposure OF Peter
SON bound and helpless, to Williams, whom they
permitted to return home after the shooting
with fake gesture of formal investigation
later" Peterson is in a critical condition IN the
HiIl1nan hospital and threatened by a gathering
lynch mob While the police prevented friends
or defense from seeing Peterson, solicitor Bales
was allowed to try to torture confession
from him telling him he is dying, but Peterson
maintained his innocence The grand jury Is
rushing through an indictment to complete the
Of
mlirderouS attack.
Peterson was arrested September "a While
walking along the street He was called over
to car in which Nell Williams, her mother
and a white man were riding through the Ne
gro section, bent upon finding victim The
white man STREET covered Peterson with revol-
yer while Nell williams called the police Even
the capitalist lynch press reported, 1.-THE police
said the Negro appeared bewildered after his
arrest and many are puzzled that the guilty
Negro should be openly walking the streets OF
Birmingham and that he was rnarmed and ap-
parently showed no apprehension when called
to the car and questioned"
The Identification" by Nell Williams, resting
solely upon Peterson's that" and the glaring
contradiction with her former statement that
"the murderer was a Negro with straight hair
who talked like an educated white man and gave
them radical lecture before shooting; the
plain, Straightforward statement and conduct
of Peterson who proved that he was sick at
home at the time of the murder; the past ar
rests murders. and brutal beatings Of many Ne
gro workers; the attempt to extradite from Chi
cago two Negro workers, the Thompson brothers,
whose lives were saved only by the prompt and
energetic struggle of the International Labor
Defense-al prove this to be another htdeous
lynch frame-up to let the blood Of innocent
Negroes and to collect the $4,000 reward offered
shortly after the society" murder by the lynch
bosses and their tools.
Climax of Murderous Boss Terror
This frame-up and murderous lynch attack
upon Peterson is the climax Of a ruthless reign
of terror let loose in Birmingham by the rich
landlord boss class against the Negro workers
and the militant working-class organizations
Using the society" murder as handy pretext
and convenient cover, the bosses police thugs
and mobs have terrorized the Negro workers,
attacking them on the streets, raiding their
homes hunting for radical papers" and sing
ling out the most militant for the most brutal
beatngs Three Negro workers have already
been murdered, one a woman whose dead body
was left on the streets.
The falling of Lowell Wakefield, southern Or
ganizer of the LID, and Harry Jackson dis
trict organizer of the Communist Party, and the
furious drive to destroy every bit of genuine
working class organization, clearly show this
whole campaign to have nothing whatever to
do with the discovery and punishment OF the
real murderer of the two society women, but to
be in fact a most ferocous ruling-class drive
of terror to crush the rising struggles Of the Ne
gro toilers and of their white working-class
allies.
Widespread Terror Against All Toilers
The shooting of Willie Peterson and the Biz
mingham terror follows closely upon the mas