The Omaha guide., 1947-03-08
BIudgeon, Rope Scared
Negro Youth Takes Stand
Against LynCherS

shreveport, La, FeD. rs (B4
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
One of the most dramatic episodes
in the history of the National AS
ISOLATION for the Advancement of
Colored Peoples struggle to afford
protection to Negroes in the south
was recalled in the Federal District
Court last week when a quiet Ne
gro youth, whose eyes still reflect
ed the terror of being hunted down
by a mob of blood thirsty killers,
related his story from the witness
stand in the trial of five white
men charged with the blow-torch
torture-lynching of a young Negro
war veteran near Minden, La, last
August 9Th. The II year old wit
ness, Albert Harris whose body is
still covered with the scars left by
the lynchers' ropes and bludgeons,
stood on the stand only by virtue
of the fact that NAACP investiga-
tors, whose lives were also imper-
lied, cooperating with the Assoc
iation's officials in New York, had
outwitted the mob last summer
and had spirited the youth out of
Louisiana while the nations press
and radio reported his fantastic
plane and auto flight to safety in
the northern Michigan woods.
The precedent-making trial in
Federal District Court of the five
white men charged with depriving
two Negroes, one of whom was
beaten to death of their civil liber
ties went into it's second day Tues.
with defense counsel making the
dramatic charge that this pros
ecution has been engineered by
minority elements in the east"
The five white men, two of them
deputy sheriffs of Webster Parish
Louisiana, are charged with con-
spiracy to deprive Albert Harris,
Jr., and John c. Jones, Negro resi-
dent of Webster Parish, of rights
privileges, and immunities guaran-
teed them under the Constitution.
Federal District Attorney Malcolm
LaFargue stated Monday at the
opening of the trial, that prosecu-
ton would prove that Deputy Sher
iff o. H. Haynes, Jr., one of the
defendants, released Jones and Har
ris to a mob who were present at
the Webster Parish Jail at8:3O Pm
August s, 1916, and that the other
defendants, members of the group
on trial, took Harris and Jones to
a bayou three miles north of Min
den, beat Harris unconscious and
beat Jones fatally. Other defend
ants in the case are Sam Maddry.
ST., w. D. Perkins, Harry Perry.
and Deputy Sheriff IN Edwards
Charges against Minden Police
Chief Benjamin Can't, previously
were dropped because of lack of
evidence.
During cross examination Tues
day, defense counsel asked Benz
amin Can't whether or not FBI.
Agents Kline Weatherford and
Vincent Drain had not told him
that they had orders from Wash
ington to get indictments at any
COST" and whether or not the a.
gents had threatened witness with
perjury charges if they did not
say the right thing" When the
District Attorney objected, defense
counsel stated that they were ask
ing this question to show that this
is a political prosecution and that
Washington was instigating it to
satisfy certain minority elements
in the east Defense Attorneys sus
tanned a double defeat on this cues
ton. Police Chief Can't replied
that the FBI Agents had stated
only that they had been instructed
to investigate the matter and bring
guilty ones before the Grand jury.
Also, Federal Judge CASTOR L. Por-
terie ruled that they must confine
the case strictly to the issue of
whether the defendants are guilty
of depriving the two Negroes of
civil liberty.
During the cross examination of
Negro eye witnesses Defense At
torneys sought to imply that the
FBI. Agents had used intimidat-
ion and threats in securing their
evidence. Albert Harris, Jr.. was
jailed in the Webster Parish Jail
last August after Sam Maddry Jr..
charged that Harris had been seen
lettering in his yard at night