St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1941-01-24
THE
MILE-POST
By Samuel A. Reed
Lynching

1
number of lynchings for the yea
1910. According to their figure
there were five verified lynching
in the past year.
It is interesting land far les
embarrassing than in previous
years. to note that this year the in
vestigations made by the Nationa
Association Sfor the Advancement
of Colored People and by Tuskeget
Institute have disclosed substan
TALLY the same facts and both have
published identical reports.
On the surface, it should bt
somewhat reassuring to observt
that the records of the past five
years indicate no appreciate in
crease Tor decrease) in the number
of verified lynchings. However, Thu
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 lynching
figures to a more critical analysis
It 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 I 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 eimi-
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. It has
only driven lynching underground.
Motivated by a fear of federal
intervention, the lynch promoters
have perfected a new streamlined
technique which makes it practical
ly impossible to determine just
when person has been lynched.
The lynchers are no longer large
mobs; they are small groups who
spirit their victim away to some
secluded spot, torture him, kill him,
and quietly dispose of his body. In
this 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 ag ain, unless someone
stumbles on a mutilated body OF
follows the circling vultures to a
| decaying corpse.
Public lynchings are scorned by
these 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-
ing.
Lynching still remains the foul
est and most disgraceful crime
imaginable in a democracy.
Hitler successfully invade q
America when the first mangled
body Of Negro was hung to 9
tree and set afiame. Hitler is still