Minneapolis spokesman. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1941-01-24
THE
MILE-POST
BY Samuel A. Reed
Lynching

number of lynchings for the yeal
1910. According to their figures
there were five verified lynchings
in the past year.
1t is interesting (and far less
embarrassing than in previous
years. to note that this year the in
vestigatiOns made by the National
Association for the Advancement
of COlored People and by Tuskegee
Institute have disclosed substan-
tally the same facts and both have
published identical reports.
On the surface, it should be
somewhat reassuring to observe
that the records of the past five
years indicate no appreciable in
crease Tor decrease) in the number
of verified lynchings. However, the
simple fact that the number of
verified lynchings seems to remain
fairly constant is singularly star
Ting when analysed in the light of
a changed and constantly changing
world.
Let US subject these fynching
figures to a more critical analysis.
1t has been repeatedly stated
that education would ultimately
solve mems problems by opening
up mems minds.
Education through government
and private agencies has in recent
years reached more people than
ever before. But this education has
done very little to eradicate racial
prejudice, and certainly nothing to
eliminate lynchings.
If education is to ever solve the
problem of lynching or any other
problem, then / submit that it must
be the proper kind of education
. and not the kind people have
been getting for decades. Our pres
ent educational system, even in the
North, is designed deliberately or
otherwise to perpetuate, not elimi-
nate, racial prejudice and lynch
law barbarism.
Another thing. Federal anti
lynch legislation has been pending |
in Congress for a goodly number of |
years. The passage of any one of |
these numerous anti-lynch bills
would force the states to surrender
much of their local authority to the
federal government.
Anyone who has studied history
Knows how dearly the South prizes
state sovereignty. Yet even the
threat of having to surrender its
most cherished possession has not
resulted in fewer lynchings. 1t has
only driven lynching underground.
Motivated by a fear of federal
Intervention, the lynch promoters
nave perfected a new streamlined
technique which makes it practical
" impossible to determine just
when a person has been lynched.
The lynchers are no longer large
no5s; they are small groups who
spirit their victim away to some
secluded spot, torture him, kill him,
and quietly dispose of his body. In
his manner a lynching is per-
formed neatly, with no undesirable
publicity of unfortunate after-ef-
fects. A Negro, a white labor Or
ganizer, or someone suspected of
being either simply disappears.
They are neither seen nor heard
from aga ain, unless someone
stumbles on a mutilated body or
follows the circling vultures to
1ecaying corpse.
Public lynchings are scorned by
;hese skilled technicians as the
work of amateurs and fools.
And yet, in spite of all these rea-
sons why lynchings should be
showing a substantial decrease,
the figures show a fairly constant
record if anything indicating |
quite conclusively that lynchings
are increasing instead of decreas-
ng.
Lynching still remains the foul
EST and most disgraceful crime
in a democracy.
Hitler successfully invaded
America when the first mangled
body of a Negro was hung to a
rec and set afame. Hitler is still
here!