The Omaha guide., 1955-12-09
Buckdrop for Murder

Buckdrop for Murder
A Few KIunss-An Associated Press dispatch written by Sam
johnson and datelined from Jackson, Miss, September g, 1854, says
in part:
into citizens councils throughout Mississippi, several legislators said
today. ~
"The peaceful approach was emphasized by several leaders in
Washington County. But some other legislators from the Delta and
other black counties where Negroes outnumber whites, predicted
zone said "a few killings would be the best thing for the state
just before the people vote n a proposed constitutional amendment
empowering the Legislature to abolish public schools.
"The few killings would make certain that the people would ap-
prove the amendment and would save a lot of bloodshed later on,
he added"
Obligated to Defy-Buck P. Patton, a staff writer for the Mem
phis, Tenn, Press7Scimitar, reports a rally of the Citizens Council at
Senatobia, Miss, August H. 1855. and quotes United States Senator
James o. Eastland Dem, Miss) as saying: "on May II the Constitu-
ton of the United States was destroyed You are not required to
gated to defy it."
Gun and Toreh-AIhOugh he said it was "abhorrent," John c.
Satterfield, president of the Mississippi Bar Association and a mem
Der OF the board of governors of the American Bar Association, in a
speech at Greenvile, Miss, nevertheless listed "the gun and torch"
as one of the three methods of continuing segregation.
Blood on Marble steps-The New York Times for April %, 1855,
reports a speech by Frederick Sullens, editor of the Jackson, Miss.
Daily News, before the American Society of Newspaper Editors meet;
ing in Washington. D. G, at the Stater Hotel April %, in which he
is quoted a saying: Mississippi will not obey the decision. If an
effort is made to send Negroes to school with white children, there
Will be bloodshed. The stains of that boodshed vii be on the Supreme
Court steps"
White Mans ProbIem-1n a front page editorial August %,
1855, the jackson, Miss, Daily News describes DR.. A H. Mccoy, state
president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People, a "insolent, arrogant and hotheaded" and says, "The fanati.
cal mouthings of Mccoy have reached the limit. If not suppressed by
his own race, he will become the white mans problem"
Blood on Their Hands-An editorial in the YaZoo City, Miss,
Herald early IN September, 1855, says: Through the Juror over the
Emmett Till case we hope someone gets this over to the nine ninnies
who comprise the present U. S. Supreme Court. Some of the young
Negroes blood is on their own hands also"
This is not the United states-In the first of a series of articles
appearing in the New York Herald Tribune September Is, 1855, Homer
Blgart, It's worldfamous correspondent, quotes Robert P. Patterson,
executive secretary of the Mississippi Citizens Councils, as saying: "Sr,
this is not the United States. This is Sunfower County, Mississippi"
In this climate of opinion which derides the courts and the rule
of the law, which harps on violence, sometimes markedly and some
times through the device of repeated disavOwal, three persons were
murdered in Mississippi between May 7 and August %, 1855.
Getting Away With Murder
Near midnight on May 7 the Rev. George ". Lee was driving home
In lis town OF Belzont MISS, In Humphreys County. Another car
overlook him on a dark street. There were two shotgun blasts from
the passing car and Rev. Lee sumped over his steering wheel with
his jaw shot away. He died before he could be taken to a hospital.
Rev. Lee was the first of his rae to register to vote in Humphreys
County and he had urged others to register. He had told a friend on
the afternoon OF his death day that ne had been ordered to remove
his name from the registration list. He had refused to do SO.
No arrests have been made.
The Sheriff said the lead pellets in Rev. Lees jaw and neck could
have been Filings from his teeth"
In the broad daylight of Saturday afternoon, August 10, Lamar
Smith was shot dead in front of the courthouse at Brookhayen. Miss
He had been active in getting voters out for the primary election
August 2 and was working on the run-off primary scheduled for Au-
gust q
has been active in the formation of White Citizens Councils and who
has made speeches in and out of Mississippi advocating the impeach-
ment of the United States Supreme Court
A grand jury on September 81, 1855, failed to return an indict.
ment against the three men arrested in connection with the Smith
murder.
The District Attorney is reported in a United Press dispatch as
accusing the Sheriff of refusing TO make IN immediate arrest "aL
though he knew everything know" about the Staying. In another
dispatch the District Attorney is quoted as saying: THE Sheriff told
me he saw Noah Smith lone of fhe accused men) leave the scene Of
the killing with blood all over him. 1t was his duty 70 take that man
into custody regardless Of who he vas but he did not do it,"
Sometime after 2 am. on August %, Emmett Louis Till, IA, who
had come to the town of Money, Miss, from Chicago to visit his great
uncle, Moses Wright, was kidnapped at gun point, beaten, shot and
thrown into the TaIahatchie River.
Two halfbrothers, J. W. Milan, 36, and Roy Bryant, "a, were tried
for murder in Sumner, Miss, in Talahatchie County where the body
was found. The two admitted taking the Till boy from his uncleis
cabin because he allegedly "wolfwhisled" at Mrs. Bryant three or
four days earlier, but said they released him unframed a short time
later. Moses Wright identified Milan from the witness stand as the
man who had come to his home with a drawn gun, demanded the Till
boy, took him from his bed and pushed him into a waiting car
An allwhite jury (only voters may serve on junes and none Of
the countys $4,000 Negroes is permitted to vote) took only one hour
and seven minutes to acqut the two defendants who were released
o bail pending the facing of a kidnap charge in neighboring LeFlore
County later in the fall or winter.
The Sheriff said fhe body las not that of the Till boy, but was
nart Of = plot by the National Association for fhe Advancement Of
coLored People.
John c. Written. one Of the five attorneys defending Milan and