Arizona sun., 1948-09-03
Mother and Wife Grief Stricken Over
Brutal Death Of Their Son and Hus-
band; Pleads for Cleanup Of Force.
BY HELEN TAYLOR

Los Angeles, Aug. 27.-"Keep on
fighting. Please tell everybody
keep on fighting, not just for me
and my family but for every race
and every nationality"
With tears streaming down her
face, Mrs. Virginia Burns, widow
of Herman Burns, Negro World
War II veteran clubbed to death
my police, gave me this message
to the people of Los Angeles who
are fighting police brutality.
Mrs. Burns collapsed from shock
when she heard of her husbands
brutal murder last Saturday night.
Herman Burns was killed and
his brother julius was beaten by
police following an argument in a
dance hall at 249 Vernon Ave. An
other brother, John, was hand
cuffed and had to watch while his
brother was beaten to death.
Mrs. Burns, mother of two small
children, has just now recovered
sufficiently to realize her husband
is gone forever-he's never coming
back.
When 1 talked to her at the home
of her husbands parents, Mr.. and
Mrs. Nelson Burns, she Wept con-
stantly in moaning, racking sobs.
''Why did they have to kill him ?'
she kept crying. "They had hand
cuffs, didn't they?"
Mrs. Burns is not the first to
raise this agonized cry. Other wives
and parents of Negroes and Mexi-
can-Americans killed by the police
have asked this question.
There has been no answer from
the police.
Mrs. Burns is anxious that the
whole community should know of
her husbands murder.
'Tell everybody-I'll cooperate
with you every way can," she as
sured me. Maybe that way we can
stop this from happening to any,
body else"
She looked at the deepening
twilight outside the window and
said sadly, ut was just about this
time that he'd be coming home
from work."
She told me of her life and her
ambitions for her children-a story,
typical of thousands of Negro peo-'
pie who have fled the bondage of
the South.
She and her husband lived in
New Orleans, La, up until seven
years ago when they came to Cal
.ifornia. She stripped tobacco for
big cigar manufacturing firm.
Herman was carpenter.
"We came. out here because
there was better pay here" she
said, land we wanted the children
to have a good education"
Mrs. Burns has two sons, Her
man, Jr., 5, and Rodney, 4. The
two youngsters pressed close to
their mother, silent and solemn.
Herman was so proud of his
kids" Mrs. Burns whispered.
1--WE thought we were coming
to a fine state-where things like
this don't happen. Police brutality
that's what we were fleeing
FROM" she cried, her hands clench-
ed tightly in her laps
Her husband worked at ship
yard, she said, then was in the
Army for four months, stationed
at Port Arthur, Texas.
After both Herman and Julius
were released from the Army, they
worked together with their father,
a small builder.
"Herman worked. so hard" Mrs.
Burns said, 1--WE never went any
where hardly. But last Saturday
night we thought we'd go out to
the dance and have a little fun"
"Just a little fun," she repeat
ed duly.
"We were out on the dance floor
when somebody said the cops (two
Negro special officers) were beat
ing julius.
II told Herman-don't you CO.
But he said, that's my brother
and I couldn't hold him. That was
the last time I saw him alive"
Herman and another brother,
John, took the bleeding Julius out
of the ballroom and were crossing
the street to their car when the
special officers and six uniformed
and plainclothes white police drove
up and began beating Herman and
julius.
Mrs. Burns knew julius was
beaten but she was taken home by
a friend and did not know her hus-
band was dead.
"He was lying there in the
street." she said, "he lay there two
hours before they took him to the
morgue. He was dead and 1 didn't
know it."
Her husband had never been ar
rested she said, "but he was al
ways getting stopped by the cops
because he, drove nice car"
'The cops couldn't believe coll
ored person could have a fine car" !"
she said bitterly.
Herman used to keep his plas-
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