Jackson advocate. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1939-current, 1952-01-05
Tuskegee Institute
Annual Report
Raps Fla. Sheriff
In croveIand
Case Staying
Only One Lynching
Recorded For 1851

(DSN)-The famous annual report
of Tuskegee Institute on the sub
ject, issued this week gives only
one lynching during the year 1851
in the United States.
The unsolved killing of a Flor
ida Negro by four masked white
men was the only incident record
ed as a lynching in the report.
One other incident, in which a
Negro prisoner was slain by
Florida sheriff, brought severe
criticism in the annual lvnchlng
report even though it was not
listed as death from mob action.
On the credit side, three lynch
ings were prevented this year, said
Tuskegee President F. D. Patter-
someone each in Alabama, Vir-
GINA and North Carolina.
80 The report reflected decline in
mob action in the United States
since 1850, when two persons, a
Negro and white man, died from
massed violence and seven attempt
ed lynchings were averted.
Listed as the lone victim of mob
in 1851 was Melvin Womack, 81
year-old migrant worker who was
dragged from his rooming house
beaten and shot on the night OF
March % near Winter Garden,
Fla. a suburb Of Orlando. He
died three days later in an Or
lando hospital.
On April an anonvmons note
to the Orlando Morning Sentinel
said the Negro was beaten by four
white men (Tuskegee said they
were Masked.
An inquest and a subsequent
grand jury investigation failed to
develop any leads, but brought re-
norts that at least one other Negro
had been beaten.
Tuskegee's report said Womack
was unable to identify his attack
ers or tell why he was kidnapped.
at is thought the night riders
lynched the wrong man." DR.. Pat
terson added.
Sheriff Willis V. Mccall was
sharply criticized for killing SAM
rel Shepherd and wounding Walter
Lee Irwin on Nov. while taking
the Negroes from Raiford prison
to Tavares, Fla, for new trial mo-
tions in rape case.
Mccall said he shot them be-
cause they attacked him when he
stopped to fix flat tire. A cor
oner's jury exonerated him.
Nevertheless, Tuskegee sal d
"this is a glaring instance where
an officer Of the law seems un-
necessarily to have killed pris
oner and wounded another with
whose care he was entrusted" The
report quoted Irwin as saying he
and Shepherd were shot without
provacation."
1t was the same sheriff who
had hid the Negroes in his home
to keep them away from a mob
after they and two others were
accused of raping young white
girl at Groveland, Fla, in 1919.
In the upsurge of violence, several
Negro homes were burned and the
National Guard YVES called out to
keep order.
One of the other Negroes was
killed by posse, the second given
life for rape. Shepherd and Irwin
were sentenced to death but the
U. S. Supreme Court reversed the
conviction because no negroes were
on the jury.
A policeman and a special Of
ficer at Colonial Beach, Va, were
saved from violence by other Of
ficers in one of the three incidents
in which Tuskegee said lynchings
were prevented in 1851. Negroes
were involved in both.
A mob Of 500 persons at CO.
lonial Beach became incensed" at
policeman Charles White and tht
special officer, the Tuskegee re-
port said, because Of alleged mis-
Continued on Page Four)