The Omaha guide., 1939-06-17
HOT IRON TORTURE LYNCH
ING IN MISSISSIPPI REVEAL
ED BY NAACP.

| Lumber Worker Shot, Burned and
Body Thrown in River For OBJ
jecting to $3.50 Deduction from
Pay
New York, June 8-The hot-iron
torture lynching of Joe Rodgers,
lumber worker and respected citi-
zen of Canton, Missippi, on May
8, was revealed here today by the
National Association for The Adj
vancement of Colored People, fol-
lowing receipt of an Investigations
mans report.
According to the Investigators
report Rodgers, a deacon IN Can
toms M. Zion Baptist Church, was
shot, tortured by hot irons, brut-
ally cut, and his body thrown into
tho Pearl River by a foreman Of
a local lSmber mill where he vas
employed.
He was lynched, the report said
because he refused to accept a
weekly deduction of $3.50 FROM
his wages in payment for renting
a company owned cabin which
he did occupy.
The lynching represents the
fifth in the United States for
1889 and the first in Mississippi
this year. 1t followed by nine
months the lynching of Claude
Banks, in the same town, July 21,-
1898. Banks was the innocent vic
tim of a white mob which was
seekinc suspects in the killing of
a white man.
The lynching of Rodgers has
brought no arrests, no publicity
from the local papers, and an or
der from town officials advising
local citizens to refrain from dis
cussing the crime, despite the fact
that the mill workers body has
been recovered from the river and
given g decent burial. The text OF
the Investigators report follows:
"On the eight of May at Canton
Miss, a Negro named Joe Rodgers
was lynched. He was a workman
at a lumber mill and was notified
by his foreman that he had to
live in the mill quarters. He e
fused to obey these orders. How
ever, the company deducted from
his weekly wages the sum of S5.5O
for rent just as if he were living
in the mill quarters. This Rodgers
protested and asked for his full
payment. His foreman struck him
with a shovel and Rodgers struck
him back with one whereupon he
was captured, tied hand and foot
shot, tortured with red hot irons
and cut and the body thrown into
the Pearl River.
THE body was recovered froH
the river three days later and
held in the funeral parlors of
Peoples Funeral Home at Can
ton, Miss. He was later buried at
Forest, Miss.
"This man was a deacon of Mt
Zion Baptist Church at Canton,
president of the church choir and
had a splendid record in every
way. The newspapers of Canton
have not written a word and there
have been no arrests made. The
Negroes have been told not to
discuss the incident.
1.-THE sheriff of Canton is c.
H. James. The mayor of the town
is C. N. Harris"
Other lynchings during 1889
listed by the NAACP follow:
February-Eldora, Ark, Walter
Lee Frazier, alleged have meles-
ed white couples-shot.
M~arch-Woodcliff, Ga, Charley
Williams, accused of having said
something 10 a white woman that
she didn't like" was snatched
from a freight train and hanged.
April Panama City, Florida.
Miles w. Brown (white) convicted
of first degree murder for the
killing of a former employer, was
shot to death after being taken
from Jail by a band of masked
men,
April 29-Daytona Beach, Flori-
da, Lee Sneli, Negro taxi driver
was shot to death on a highway
near Daytona Beach while being
taken to- falkland Constable James
I burden said thavslayers were two
brothers of a boy fatally injured
by SnelEs staxEiiseveral hours