The Omaha guide., 1947-05-24
FEDERAL ANTI-LYNCHINC BILL
INTRODUCED IN HOUSE
BY REP. C. p. CASE

Washington, D. c., May 22-The
long-awaited new and strengthened
anti-lynching bill was introduced in
the House today by Congressman
Clifford P. Case, New Jersey Repub-
lican. 1t will receive the vigorous
support of the NAACP, church, labor,
professional and civic groups.
The measure has been referred to
the House Judiciary Committee of
which Congressman Case is a men,
Der.
In a statement issued today, Mr..
Case declared that it is vital that the
federal government should definitely
define and use full authority to pro-
tect fundamental human rights.
Our moral leadership, upon which
the outside world depends at least as
much as on our physical strength and
material resources, will be greatly
weakened he said, unless we, as a
nation, take definite and effective steps
to eradicate the foul crime of lynching
from the fabric of our domestic life.
Freedom from lynch law is essen
tial to the enjoyment of the funda-
mental human rights which the United
States promised to promote when it
signed the United Nations Charter.
1t is n of the inherent rights guar
anteed by our Constitution"
The Case bill, it was pointed out,
would provide heavy criminal penal
ties for any member of a lynch mob
or any other person wilfully involved
in a lynching. 1t would also punish
any state or local official who shall
have failed in the performance of his
duty to prevent a lynching or to ap-
prehend and bring to justice anyone
guilty of that crime. Of equal, if not
greater, importance, it would make
the local community whose neglect
makes possible a lynching, or an alb
duction which leads to alynching, Ii
able for civil damages to the lynch
victim or to his family if he is killed.
The Congressman called attention
to the fact that 1916 showed a
marked increase in the number of adj
! mitted lynchings. He pointed to the
fact that there has been on conviction
Of the lynchers who dragged Roger
Malcolm, George Dorsey, a veteran,
and their wives, Willie Mae and Dor
othy, from a car and shot them to
death in broad daylight down in Mon
roe, Georgia, last July. He said that
those who lynched Leon McTatie, the
35-year-old father of ten children in
Lexington, Mississippi, have never
paid the penalty for their heinous
crime against humanity.
While recognizing the efforts which
certain states and communities have
made and are making to deal with
the problem, he insisted that the
whole record, including that for 1916,
clearly showed that they could not do
the job alone and that the assistance
OF a strong federal law was necessary.
1t wa pointed out that following
the failure to make any progress on
the Monroe, Georgia lynchingS, At
torney-C General Tom Clark asserted in
several speeches and in n magazine
article last year that a federal law
specifically against lynching was neces-
sary in order to give federal officials
the necessary authority to act.
Representative Case said that the
bill had been prepared with the CO.
operation Of the National Association
for the Advancement of Colored Peo-
pie and that the support of many
church, labor, professional and civic
organizations had been assured.
A similar bill is expected to be in
troduced in the Senate in the next few