St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1947-05-30
A White SOutherner
On Acquittal of South
Cardinals 28 Lynchers
(By stetsOn Kennedy in p NJ

(By StetsOn Kennedy in P NJ
Editors Note: Stetscn Ken.
Redy, Guthoy Of Southern Expo.
sure, is no ''dGmHyaHkee." He is a
native Of the South, and has Hever
lived outside Of il; two OF his
Southern loTebeGrs signed The
Declaration Of Independence, and
his grandfather fought tor The
Confectionery
you're not expected to convict
anybody" said the defense at
tOrney to the jury.
So confident was the defense, it
didn't even bother TO introduce any
defense witnesses, even though the
% white men on trial for the lynch
murder Of a Negro had signed
damning confessions.
Nor was the defense disap-
pointed.
mot guilty." declared the lily
white jury Wednesday, freeing all
% men.
Justice has been done-I feel
the best ever felt in my life"
beloved Carlos r. Hurd, who had
been named by acknowledgements
as trigger man.
II think this is a perfect example
Of proving that the Dept. Of Jus
tiee, Walter Winchell, and other
people up North should keep their
mouth out Of the South's business!"
shouted Defense Attorney Tom
Wofford.
And so a trial unprecedented in
Southern Jurisprudence came to an
Unprecedented end.
Greenville-like Columbia, Tenn, |
and Monroe, Ca, before it-had |
laid the whitewash on thick. Justice |
was jubilantly lynched, partly to
maintain white supremacy" part
ly to show the damnyankees who
really won the Civil War.
SymbolizinR the Spirit Of Green
vile were the collection jars for the
lynchers' defense fund, which
cropped up in local stores.
The brand Of. lily-white justice
dispensed at Greenville, Monroe,
and Columbia was grist from a mill
whose foundations still rest upon
the more or less defunct institu-
ton Of chattel slavery. This same
mill ground out the infamous Black
Codes, which during the post
Reconstruction period went so far
as TO bar court testimony by Ne
groes against whites. GreenvilIe
means that the South has finally
progressed TO the point where it
is willing to go through the mo-
tons Of a lynch trial-with con-
fidence that the jury will not con-
Viet.
Even when a white man kills a
Negro without prOvocation, lily
white Southern juries have always
'elt that such a crime should be
regarded as a misdemeanor at
most, with a maximum penalty Of
rot more than 10 years. This is 4
What the Khan oath, which requires I
Ill Kluxers to come to the aid Of
Brother Klansman in any ex- '
remity treason, rape, and mali.
iOus murder alone excepted" real {
y means: It's always open season s
m Negroes down South. It is the i
White mans privilege to kill Ne d
'roes with impunity. Only when I
Negro kills a Negro is the crime c
egarded as murder.
| am quite certain that no South il
IN jury has ever sentenced n white t
nan to death for killing one or a
nore Negroes. To believers in white n
upremacy the very idea Of taking a
white life for having taken o
Iegro life smacks Of social c
quality" Il
For generations Southern Ne ID
roes have summed up this situa-
ion in a folksong Tone Of the few d
orms Of protest permitted thcm) a
When a Negro kills white man, S
hey hangs him like a goat; il
'ut when white man Kills a
Negro. c
hey hardly carries it to court" c;
Greenville carried it to court, the
rosecutor prosecuted, the judge
'aned over backward to be impair b.