The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-12-04
Sidelights on the
Lynch Trial
Continued from Page u

citation secretary, felt keenly the re-
Election upon himself of the charges
about Jew money" which Solicitor
Wade Wright Of Morgan County had
made at the Spring trial, Jews we're
looked upon with suspicion. 1t was
taken for granted that a Jew was
a Communist, or at least in secret
sympathy with the terrible reds. He
was trying to show that the Jews
were not in sympathy with the reds,
and that in fact, the Jews were try
ing to do everything possible to get
the reds out of the Scottsboro cases,
and turn the defense Of the boys over
to nice, Southern lawyers, who would
try them as criminal cases. and
never bring up the sore subject of
Negro inequality and persecution-the
source of the rope" was in the South
and the deliberate exclusion of Ne
groes from Southern juries.
Mr.. Fidelson and I discussed the
cases and the LID. activities in them
for more than two hours. Mr.. Fidel-
son was liberal" During the con-
yersation, the subject came up of re-
porters at the last Spring trial. In
the course Of desultory discussion
on that, I mentioned some OF the
things Southern reporters had tried
to suppress during the last trial. He
asked whether the News Age Herald
reporter, Ralph Hurst, had been one
of them, and assured me that what
ever 1 told him about Hurst would
be for his own information and guild
ance.
told him what have publicly
stated: that Ralph Hurst deliberately
tried to suppress vital news during
the Spring trial when that news
pointed favorably to the defense, es-
pecially his deliberate effort to sup
press news about the two mob &C
lions during the trial presided over
by Judge Horton.
When l finished my conversation
with Mr.. Fidelson I was convinced
that the liberal groups which he
represented, including the inter-racial
commission, was trying desperately to
get the 1. L. D. to drop the defense
Of the Scottsboro boys, so as not to
bring up the tender subject Of the
exclusion of Negroes from juries in
Alabama and the rest Of the South.
With the 7. L. D. out Of the picture,
southern lawyers would defend" the
boys, either get them off or get them
long penitentiary sentences and the
most important issues in the case,
excluding that Of saving the lives of
the boys the fight for Negro
equal rights, including the right to
serve on juries would be forgotten
and the south would be able to re-
turn to it's peaceful exploitation of
the black man.
When I left this liberal" erstwhile
secretary Of the Young Mems Hebrew
Association who was trying to save
the good names OF the southern Jews,
I looked around the city room. Ralph
Hurst was nowhere in sight. had
not announced my name to Mr..
Fidelson. No one knew had been
to see him.
That night I walked into Attorney
General knights suite at the Motion
Hotel in Birmingham. We talked
for three hours In the course OF our
conversation the Attorney General
told me that had seen Fidelson,
what we had discussed and the
charges I had made that the Birming-
ham News Age Herald reporter had
deliberately tried to suppress vital
news at the spring trial.
There was only one person from
whom Knight could have got that in
formation: the liberal" Mr.. Fidelson,
who Immediately spilled everything
the moment I left. I mention this
so that the reader may get a good
notion Of the reliability and honesty
of the liberal element in the heart
Of Alabama which has been trying"
to do things for the Scottsboro boys.
And before I close on this, 1t is not
amiss to mention that knowing what
Hurst had done during the spring
trial Hurst was again sent to cover
the third Patterson +-''"' 49,
a few days ago. What Hurst did at
this trial will be told in this story.
ITO Be Continued