The Omaha guide., 1942-02-21

vestigation for an report to the
NAACP made last week by Mr..
and Mrs. L. Benoist Tompkins Of
this city who spent "a hours in
Sikeston, Mo-, four days after the
lynching, questioning leading whit
es in the community and leading
Negroes in Sunset Addition, the
Negro ghetto.
MOB WAS "JusT FOLKS.
The makeup of the mob was
described as being "just folks. 49,.
not like our last lynching. -. done
by the upper classes" Southeast
Missouri's last lynching was in
Mississippi County, December is.
1924, when a mob stormed the jail
and took out a Negro accused Of
raping a white girl.
Fear of Negroes, the need to
keep the Negro in his place. and
the feudal nature Of southeast Mis-
souri,, where a very few people own
all the land and the rest are vas
sails, are behind the story Of the
brutal lynching, the Tompkins re-
ported.
"Along with this feeling runs a
genuine fear Of the Negroes phys
ical violence. Negroes are natur-
ally vicious they said, with less
control over their emotions II
follows that violence is necessary
to keep them s~ubservient'. 1t al
so follows that killing a Negro is
not a crime like killing a white
man, because the Negro is closer
to brute than to an independent
human individual with human
rights. There is a carry-ovcr
feeling in Sikeston today that go
es back to the old-time southern
idea that every white man had to
have several colored girls, and kill
one niger, before he became a
man indeed +"
The Investigators said: we
were given the definite impression
that the lynchers would not be os-
TRACKED by the community; on the
other hand those who might test
ify against the lynchers would be
~ostracized. Even the most liberal
man to whom we spoke said that
had he witnessed the crime (which
he had not) he would mot be in
clined to testify"
Negroes themselves are afraid
to identify any Of the mob eyen
though they saw the entire pro-
ceedings and know those resp0n-
sible.
One man In the EuAset Addition
On being questioned by the Tomp-
kins was terrified and said he
would not talk ito white folks.
"We did not ask him to talk the
Investigators stated, because it
is clear that he does not have po-
lice protection in Sikeston."
NEGROES TOO COCkY"
Zone person suggested that the
tension between poor white and
Negro labor might have some
bearing on the lynching. The
poor whites object to equality with
the Negro wen more than the
wealthy ones. Racial feelings are
more bitter among the poor, be-
cause If they can't feel superior
| to the Negro, what would they feel
superior about?" Many of this
class Of workers were in the lynch
ing crowd"
The report also revealed that the
lynching of Cleo Wright was not
an isolated incident, but that ten
sion had been growing over a per-
iod of time. Feeling had been
growing that Negroes were gett-
ing "too cocky".
There is increasing feeling a.
gainst labor unions organizing Ne
groes," the Investigators said. Ne
gro labor is less s~ubservient than
white labor at present and m
ployers do not expect this. With
the threat of a labor shortage
looming close, employers resent
any encouragement to labor to be-
come too courageous and demand
ing. Negroes have been the beasts
Of burden in southeast Missouri an
since it is important to the econ
omic set up that they remain in
this status, they are not encour-
aged to develop. The white peo-
pie of southeast Missouri do not
ike independent Negroes. Therd
was a growing feeling that they
should be put back in the place
where they belong"
In commenting On their report
MI. and Mrs. Tompkins observed:
1.-THE Sikeston incident points TO
certain breakdowns in our legal
system: Under our present laws,
lynching, which is defined as muir
der, goes unpublished, because the
crime is judged in local courts
by those who themselves believe
~ Ivrnhsp YaIrnO PrngacIltSnO~