TO PREVENT AND PUNISH THE CRIME OF LYNCHING

HEARING

BEFORE A

SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE
COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY
UNITED STATES SENATE
SIXTY-NINTH CONGRESS

FIRST SESSION
ON

S. 121

A BILL TO ASSURE TO PERSONS WITHIN THE JURISDICTION
OF EVERY STATE THE EQUAL PROTECTION OF THE
LAWS, AND TO PUNISH THE CRIME
OF LYNCHING

FEBRUARY 16, 1926

Printed for the use of the Committee on the Judiciary

WASHINGTON
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
1926

85065

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1926

UNITED STATES SENATE,
SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY,

Washington, D. C.

The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10 o'clock a. m. in the committee room, Capitol, Senator King presiding.

Present: Senators Gillett and King, of the subcommittee.

Present also: Senator McKinley, of Illinois, and Senator Deneen, of Illinois.

Senator KING (presiding). The committee will be in order. As I understand the situation this subcommittee of the Committee of the Judiciary has been called to meet this morning for the purpose of considering S. 121, offered by Senator McKinley, which bill will be made a part of the record, as follows:

[S. 121, Sixty-ninth Congress, first session.]

A BILL To assure to persons within the jurisdiction of every State the equal protection of the laws, and to punish the crime of lynching

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the phrase "mob or riotous assemblage" when used in this act, shall mean an assemblage composed of three or more persons acting in concert, without authority of law, for the purpose of depriving any person of his life, or doing him physical injury.

SEC. 2. If any State or governmental subdivision thereof fails, neglects, or refuses to provide and maintain protection to the life or person of any individual within its jurisdiction against a mob or riotous assemblage, whether by way of preventing or punishing the acts thereof, such State shall by reason of such failure, neglect, or refusal, be deemed to have denied to such person the equal protection of the laws of the State, and to the end that the protection guaranteed to persons within the jurisdictions of the several States, or to citizens of the United States, by the Constitution of the United States, may be secured, it is provided:

SEC. 3. That any State or municipal officer charged with the duty or who possesses the power or authority as such officer to protect the life or person of any individual that may be injured or put to death by any mob or riotous assemblage, or who, having any such person in his charge as a prisoner, fails, neglects, or refuses to make all appropriate efforts to prevent such person from being so injured or put to death, or any State or municipal officer charged with the duty of apprehending, keeping in custody, or prosecuting any person participating in such mob or riotous assemblage who fails, neglects, or refuses to make all appropriate efforts to perform his duty in apprehending, keeping in custody, or prosecuting to final judgment under the laws of such State all persons so participating (except those held to answer for such participation in any district court of the United States, as herein provided) shall be guilty of a felony, and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by imprisonment not

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Those who are in the habit of justifying or apologizing for lynching defend the practice on the ground that it is a fit punishment for rape. The figures available entirely refute this contention. Of the whites lynched the largest per cent, 46, were accused of murder, while 8.4 per cent were accused of rape and "attacks upon women." Of the negroes, 35.8 per cent were accused of murder and 28.4 per cent of rape and "attacks upon women." It is thus to be seen that of the whole number of lynchings not more than 19 per cent of the victims were accused of rape, while the remaining 81 per cent were accused of other crimes or misdemeanors, or even of no crime at all, the newspaper accounts being that some of these victims had been guilty of no other offense than that of being "lazy" or exhibiting "bad manners."

While it appears that lynching is practiced in all parts of the country and upon both races and sexes, by far the greater number of victims are of the negro race. The colored people accordingly are the greatest sufferers from this form of lawlessness. They are particularly distressed by the evil and they especially feel the need of protection from it. While the grievance is largely that of the negroes, the shame is that of the whole Nation, and responsibility for removing the shame rests upon the whole Nation. It has now been 61 years since the negro was made a free man by Constitutional amendment, 58 years since they were made citizens of the United States, and 56 years since they were made voters by like provision. So by the highest law of the land the negro is a free man, a citizen, and a voter. Although he has been in possession of these great rights for relatively so short a time he has shown himself to be worthy of them. As a free man he has always been amenable to reason and persuasion; as a citizen he has uniformly been a patriot, and as a voter he has consistently aligned himself with the intelligence, the efficiency, the administrative ability, and the forces that stand for order and property. What can be said of any other group of our fellow citizens? The negro is now a most efficient and essential factor in carrying on the productive industries of the country; and although he is new in many of these industries he is showing a faithfulness and acquiring a skill worthy of all commendation. There is now scarcely any calling, occupation, or profession in which the negro is not showing a capacity and an aptitude which challenges the respect and admiration of thoughtful men. All of these facts taken in connection with the fact that he is a fellow human being should commend him to our sense of justice and fair play and entitle him to all of the benefits of law and order and civilization.

As has been intimated in what has gone before, this question of lynching has an international aspect. Our State Department, in conducting the foreign relation of the Government wherein it is seeking redress from foreign governments on account of lawless deprivations of American lives and property, has not infrequently to encounter the charge that the acts of which we complain against the foreign nation are acts of common occurrence in this country, and that until we have cleaned our own house we are estopped to

complain of wrongs arising from like causes in other nations. These things are thrown in our face in our relation with nations in our own Western Hemisphere. It is not unusual for an American traveling abroad to encounter in newspapers and magazines of foreign countries the most critical and humiliating comments upon the existence of lawlessness, lynching, and mob violence in this country. It is perfectly clear that the foreign public opinion created by these comments affect in some measure our international relations. Of late years travelers in the Far East have observed the same phenomenon. This fact can not but have an immense influence upon our relations with the teeming millions in the Orient. Statesmen can not be insensible to these facts and influences. They should admonish us to look carefully at internal conditions which are having such manifest influence in our foreign relations.

There are those who while they admit the national character of lynching and deplore its existence, yet oppose congressional action dealing with the subject for want of constitutional power. The power given Congress under section 4, article 4, of the Constitution of the United States to guarantee to each State a republican form of government and the power contained in the fourteenth amendment are ample for this situation. It is scarcely conceivable that the power to guarantee a form of government does not carry with it the corresponding duty to see that such government functions in law and order. The Supreme Court of the United States in numerous decisions has held that the power to guarantee a republican form of government is a political power to be exercised by Congress. (See Luther v. Borden, 7 Howard 1; Texas v. White, 7 Wallace 730; and Pacific States Tel. Etc., Co. v. Oregon, 223 U. S. 118.) It is not likely that the Supreme Court would annul legislation enacted in pursuance of a political power and not in the mere exercise of a police power. Under the fourteenth amendment the failure or inability of a State to assure every citizen the equal protection of the law and due process of law should be the same thing as to deny him affirmatively these rights.

It seems that there has been some decrease in the yearly number of lynchings since 1921. The indications are, however, that such decrease has been due to agitation, movements of population, scarcity of labor in some sections of the country, and the fear of the loss of labor supply in other sections of the country. One of the most disquieting occurrences of recent months has been the fact that a negro charged with the crime of murder in Mississippi and acquitted thereof by a court of competent jurisdiction was taken from the court room by a mob and lynched after said acquittal. Since then, although the local authorities undertook the prosecution of the lynchers, they have since dropped it, presumably for want of support in local public opinion. It thus appears that all of the facts converge to support the contention that the Nation itself has a duty in this situation and that that duty is to remove the blot of lynching from is escutcheon.

85065—26—2

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Mr. Chairman, Mr. James Weldon Johnson, secretary of the Na-
tional Association for the Advancement of Colored People, will
speak first.

Senator KING. Mr. Johnson, you will please state your name, whom you represent, and your residence.

STATEMENT OF JAMES WELDON JOHNSON, SECRETARY NATIONAL
ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE,
69 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK

Mr. JOHNSON. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee,
this bill falls really under three heads:

1. The facts.

2. The need for legislation; and

3. The constitutionality of such a measure.

Fortunately the facts are well known. For 40 years they have
been widely and regularly published in the press of the country.
Certain persons have made a systematic study of the facts and fig-
ures and have collated them in various documents. The National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the organiza-
tion which I represent, through research experts, spent about six
months in the Congressional Library here in the city of Washing-
ton reading newspapers for 30 years back and tabulating lynchings,
and the result was the first authoritative book on the subject. This
book is entitled "Thirty Years of Lynching in the United States,
1889-1918." It gives names, dates, places of alleged crimes for which
persons have been lynched. In the compilation of this data the
newspapers of the localities in which the lynchings occurred were
taken as the sources of information. This book contains tables,
excerpts from newspapers, percentages—that is, percentages of the
various crimes alleged for lynching—and, as I have already stated,
it contains names, dates, places of alleged crimes for a period of 30
years back, and upon such a subject as you gentlemen now have be-
fore you it makes a rather invaluable document. I should like to
submit this book for the record.

Senator KING. As I understand, you do not wish us to reprint this
in our hearings, but you do submit this book for the information of
the committee.

Mr. JOHNSON. That is right.

Senator GILLETT. Have you more than one copy?

Mr. JOHNSON. Yes, sir.

Senator GILLETT. If you would give us three or four copies, they
will suffice.

Mr. JOHNSON. I shall be glad to mail to the clerk of the committee three additional copies when I return to my office.

Senator KING. You may continue your statement.

Mr. JOHNSON. It may be seen from the record which I have sub-
mitted that the crimes alleged as the causes for the lynchings com-
prised offenses of all sorts, from rape and murder down to imperti-
nence. It will also be noted that nowhere in the history of lynching
at no period is rape the most frequently alleged offense. Murder
holds first place; in fact, rape constitutes less than one-fifth of the

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alleged—now, mind you, the alleged—charges for lynchings in the
United States. That is, out of 3,500 persons lynched in the United
States in the last 36 years—or, to be exact, there have been 3,559
lynchings in the United States, an average of nearly 100 a year—the
percentage of those who were charged, even whether true or not,
with rape is less than 20 per cent.

Senator KING. Within those figures which you have given are
there included the orientals who were killed in some of the Western
States?

Mr. JOHNSON. Yes, sir.

Senator KING. There were at one time, as you doubtless recall, in
one State some 79 orientals killed.

Mr. JOHNSON. Yes, sir; I think those are included.

Senator KING. And those embrace all cases of lynching in the
entire United States, do I understand you to say?

Mr. JOHNSON. That is, this book includes all between the years
1889 and 1918, inclusive

Senator KING. A period of 36 years, I believe you have stated.

Mr. JOHNSON. This book takes in a period of 30 years, but I
have a supplemental statement here which brings the figures up
to date.

Senator GILLETT. Have you the figures of lynchings down to date?

Mr. JOHNSON. Yes, Senator Gillett.

Senator KING. You may proceed with your statement.

Mr. JOHNSON. The greatest rebuttal to the statement that rape
is the usual crime which produces lynching—and I dwell on this
because it has been put forward as a sort of apology, that people
are very much wrought up over the fact that an assault has been
made upon some woman and that the community gets without
bounds, and that it is a thing one can not reason with; I say the
greatest rebuttal of that statement is the fact that rape is not the
main alleged cause for lynching. Murder leads the list—and these
causes run on down through the most trivial offenses; but the
strongest rebuttal to the claim that rape is the cause of lynching is
the lynching of women.

Senator KING. I did not catch that last statement of yours.
Please repeat it.

Mr. JOHNSON. I say, the chief rebuttal to the statement that rape
is the cause of lynching is the fact that women themselves are
lynched, and you can see that the lynching of women could have
nothing to do with the charge of rape.

I have here in my hand a pamphlet which was printed after the
data had been collated with just as much scientific care as the book,
"Thirty Years of Lynching in the United States, 1889-1918."
This pamphlet is entitled, "Women Lynched in the United States
Since 1889." It contains names, dates, places of alleged commis-
sion of offenses with reference to women lynched in the United
States since 1889. This sums up a list of 90 women who have been
lynched in the United States since 1889. I should like to submit
this pamphlet, which is very short, and which I think should be
made a part of the record.

Senator KING. It will be received for that purpose.

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a mob apprehends, tries according to mob procedure, condemns, and then executes a man—that is, where a mob acts in place of the courts by taking the law into their own hands.

Senator KING. Do you call lynching where a person—and I will not give his name—is taken from the penitentiary, as was done in one of the Southern States a few years ago, after he had been convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment—where such a man was taken from the penitentiary authorities and lynched?

Mr. JOHNSON. Yes, sir; we have his case. That was Lindsay Coleman—

Senator KING. Oh, no; that is not the case. I will not mention his name except off the record—did you include that case?

Mr. JOHNSON. I am pretty sure that case was included.

Senator KING. The only point I am trying to get at is this, what you have included in your figures as lynchings. I want to know what you mean by lynching in view of your statement that you did not include the Herrin massacre.

Mr. SELIGMAN. The case of the man taken from the penitentiary in Georgia is included in our figures of lynchings.

Mr. JOHNSON. Perhaps the line is a very hard one to draw. We have not considered riots as lynchings. If they were included I might suggest that they would swell our figures considerably.

Senator KING. Has there been any disposition to emphasize unlawful killings in the South as lynchings while not taking into account similar cases in the North?

Mr. JOHNSON. Not at all. We have taken the records countrywide. wherever we have been able to find a record of a lynching we have used it.

Senator KING. I am a little curious just to understand the basis of your differentiation between the various classes of deaths which have occurred through violence. I mean, what you call mob violence and define it as lynching, and do not cover some other cases.

Mr. JOHNSON. Well, as I have said, I do not believe we could give a very good definition of what lynching is, but in more general terms such matters to the courts.

Senator KING. How would you term these earlier killings or lynchings that took place in the Western States in the early days, in the mining days particularly?

Mr. JOHNSON. I think they would fall under the definition of lynching.

Senator KING. Where, for instance, a man would be accused of having stolen a horse, or the gold of his associates, and the citizens of the community would meet and try him, give him full opportunity to be heard, and then would order his death; would you call that lynching?

Mr. JOHNSON. Yes, sir.

Mr. JOHNSON. Offsetting the decrease in lynchings within the last year or two is the brutality and atrocity of some of the lynchings that have occurred, even within the past year 1925. Among these 18 lynching, recorded for 1925—and I might throw in parenthetically that there may have been more lynchings than 18, but we have

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only taken those which we are sure of—there were 2 negroes burned alive at the stake. There was one man, an inmate of the State Insane Asylum at Milledgeville, Ga., who was charged with having killed a nurse, who was taken out by a mob and beaten to death. That, to my mind, is as atrocious as burning alive at the stake, because treatment of the insane has always been a test of true civilization.

Then we have another case which is illustrative of the extent to which lynching has undermined our institutions. At Clarksdale, Miss., Lindsay Coleman, a negro, a few minutes after he had been acquitted by a jury of a charge of murder, was dragged from the courthouse and lynched by a mob. Now, mind you, gentlemen, this man was dragged from the very courthouse in which, just a few minutes before, he had been acquitted of the charge.

Now, gentlemen of the committee, I have here the supplement of figures on lynchings following the booklet Thirty Years of Lynching in the United States, 1889-1918. These have not yet been printed in book form, and for the information of the committee I should like to present these.

Senator KING. They will be received.

(The statement referred to is here made a part of the record, as follows:)

Lynching record for 1919¹

<table><thead><tr><th>Name</th><th>Date</th><th>Place</th><th>Manner of lynching</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Henry Thomas</td><td>Jan. 18</td><td>Grand Bayou, La.</td><td>Burned.</td></tr><tr><td>Bragg Williams</td><td>Jan. 20</td><td>Hillsboro, Tex.</td><td>Hanged.</td></tr><tr><td>Sampson Smith</td><td>Jan. 30</td><td>Monroe, La.</td><td>Do.</td></tr><tr><td>John Daniels</td><td>Feb. 6</td><td>New Bern, N. C.</td><td>Hanged and shot.</td></tr><tr><td>Will Fortner</td><td>Feb. 14</td><td>Bossier, La.</td><td>Hanged.</td></tr><tr><td>Eugene Green</td><td>Mar. 2</td><td>Belzoni, Miss.</td><td>Cut to pieces.</td></tr><tr><td>Cicero Cage</td><td>Mar. 13</td><td>Tuscaloosa, Ala.</td><td>Shot.</td></tr><tr><td>Joe Walker</td><td>do....</td><td>Greenville, Fla.</td><td>Burned.</td></tr><tr><td>Bud Johnson (soldier)</td><td>Mar. 14</td><td>Place, Fla.</td><td>Shot.</td></tr><tr><td>Sam McIntyre</td><td>Apr. 14</td><td>Millen, Ga.</td><td>Hanged.</td></tr><tr><td>George Holden</td><td>Apr. 23</td><td>Forrest City, Ark.</td><td>Shot.</td></tr><tr><td>Tom Gwyn</td><td>Apr. 29</td><td>Monroe, La.</td><td>Hanged (burned after death).</td></tr><tr><td>Benny Richards</td><td>May 2</td><td>Hickory, N. C.</td><td>Do.</td></tr><tr><td>Discharged soldier</td><td>May 9</td><td>Warrentown, Ga.</td><td>Do.</td></tr><tr><td>Lloyd Clay</td><td>do....</td><td>Pickens, Miss.</td><td>Do.</td></tr><tr><td>Jim Waters</td><td>May 14</td><td>Vicksburg, Miss.</td><td>Burned.</td></tr><tr><td>Will Moore</td><td>May 15</td><td>Scott, Ga.</td><td>Hanged and shot.</td></tr><tr><td>Frank Livingston (soldier)</td><td>May 20</td><td>Ten Mile, Miss.</td><td>Burned.</td></tr><tr><td>Jay Lynch (white)</td><td>May 21</td><td>Eldorado, Ark.</td><td>Hanged.</td></tr><tr><td>Berry Washington</td><td>May 30</td><td>Lamar, Mo.</td><td>Do.</td></tr><tr><td>James E. Lewis</td><td>June 6</td><td>Mineral Wells, Miss.</td><td>Do.</td></tr><tr><td>Max Smith</td><td>June 7</td><td>Pritchard, Ala.</td><td>Shot.</td></tr><tr><td>Clyde Ellison</td><td>June 15</td><td>Abbeville, S.C.</td><td>Hanged.</td></tr><tr><td>Jin McMillan</td><td>June 18</td><td>Star City, Ark.</td><td>Shot.</td></tr><tr><td>Frank Foukal (white)</td><td>June 22</td><td>Woodstock, Ala.</td><td>Do.</td></tr><tr><td>John Hartfield</td><td>June 26</td><td>Bay Minette, Ala.</td><td>Burned.</td></tr><tr><td>Lije Blake</td><td>do....</td><td>Ellisville, Miss.</td><td>Shot.</td></tr><tr><td>Lemuel Walters</td><td>June 28</td><td>Tillman, S. C.</td><td>Hanged.</td></tr><tr><td>Robert Truett (soldier)</td><td>June 17</td><td>Richton, Miss.</td><td>Do.</td></tr><tr><td>Chilton Jennings</td><td>July 15</td><td>Longview, Tex.</td><td>Do.</td></tr><tr><td>Argie M. Robinson</td><td>July 24</td><td>Louise, Miss.</td><td>Hanged.</td></tr><tr><td>Charles Kelly (soldier)</td><td>Aug. 1</td><td>Glmer, Tex.</td><td>Shot.</td></tr><tr><td>Jim Grant (soldier)</td><td>Aug. 5</td><td>Fayette County, Ala.</td><td>Hanged.</td></tr><tr><td>Walter Elliot</td><td>Aug. 14</td><td>Cochran, Ga.</td><td>Shot.</td></tr><tr><td>Ell Cooper</td><td>Aug. 20</td><td>Pope City, Ga.</td><td>Shot.</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>Aug. 28</td><td>Loisburg, N. C.</td><td>Shot (burned after death).</td></tr><tr><td></td><td></td><td>Ocmulgee, Ga.</td><td></td></tr></tbody></table>

¹ Supplement to thirty years of lynching.

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Lynchings in the United States (36 years)

<table><thead><tr><th>Years</th><th>Total</th><th>White</th><th>Colored</th><th>Years</th><th>Total</th><th>White</th><th>Colored</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>1889</td><td>175</td><td>80</td><td>95</td><td>1909</td><td>89</td><td>14</td><td>75</td></tr><tr><td>1890</td><td>91</td><td>3</td><td>88</td><td>1910</td><td>90</td><td>10</td><td>80</td></tr><tr><td>1891</td><td>194</td><td>67</td><td>127</td><td>1911</td><td>71</td><td>8</td><td>63</td></tr><tr><td>1892</td><td>226</td><td>71</td><td>155</td><td>1912</td><td>64</td><td>3</td><td>61</td></tr><tr><td>1893</td><td>153</td><td>39</td><td>114</td><td>1913</td><td>48</td><td>1</td><td>47</td></tr><tr><td>1894</td><td>182</td><td>54</td><td>128</td><td>1914</td><td>54</td><td>5</td><td>49</td></tr><tr><td>1895</td><td>178</td><td>68</td><td>110</td><td>1915</td><td>96</td><td>43</td><td>53</td></tr><tr><td>1896</td><td>125</td><td>46</td><td>79</td><td>1916</td><td>58</td><td>7</td><td>51</td></tr><tr><td>1897</td><td>162</td><td>38</td><td>124</td><td>1917</td><td>50</td><td>2</td><td>48</td></tr><tr><td>1898</td><td>127</td><td>24</td><td>103</td><td>1918</td><td>67</td><td>4</td><td>63</td></tr><tr><td>1899</td><td>109</td><td>22</td><td>87</td><td>1919 (2 Mexicans)</td><td>83</td><td>4</td><td>77</td></tr><tr><td>1900</td><td>101</td><td>12</td><td>89</td><td>1920</td><td>65</td><td>8</td><td>57</td></tr><tr><td>1901</td><td>135</td><td>27</td><td>108</td><td>1921</td><td>64</td><td>6</td><td>58</td></tr><tr><td>1902</td><td>94</td><td>10</td><td>84</td><td>1922</td><td>61</td><td>0</td><td>61</td></tr><tr><td>1903</td><td>104</td><td>17</td><td>87</td><td>1923</td><td>28</td><td>2</td><td>26</td></tr><tr><td>1904</td><td>86</td><td>7</td><td>70</td><td>1924</td><td>16</td><td>0</td><td>16</td></tr><tr><td>1905</td><td>65</td><td>5</td><td>60</td><td>1925</td><td>18</td><td>0</td><td>18</td></tr><tr><td>1906</td><td>68</td><td>4</td><td>64</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>1907</td><td>62</td><td>3</td><td>59</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>1908</td><td>100</td><td>8</td><td>92</td><td></td><td>3,559</td><td>722</td><td>2,835</td></tr></tbody></table>

Mr. JOHNSON. Now, I think the need for this legislation is unan-
mously admitted—at least, a need for stamping out lynching in the
United States. There is first to be considered protection of lives
of American citizens. I do not see how a nation can arrive at the
point of considering itself powerless to protect its own citizens.
There is the necessity for respect for law and order. The crime of
lynching can not be and has not been limited to negroes. In fact,
of the total of 3,559 persons lynched since 1889, 722 of them were
white.

Then there is the question of the preservation of our basic insti-
tutions and of orderly processes. There is to be considered the
influence of the good name and of the honor of the United States
among the nations of the world. It must be appalling to every
citizen of the United States to know that we live on the only spot,
can be burned alive at the stake with immunity.
I have here a facsimile reproduction of—

Senator KING. You do not mean by that statement that there
are no statutes within the 48 States of the Union which constitute
the unlawful taking of the life of another as murder?
Mr. JOHNSON. Oh, no.

Senator KING. With adequate punishment provided for such an
offense.

Mr. JOHNSON. I do not. What I mean is that immunity is a
practical proposition, that it works out in a practical way.
Senator GILLETT. Has anyone ever been convicted of any of these
crimes?

Mr. JOHNSON. No, sir. I have here a facsimile reproduction from
the Memphis News Scimitar of the issue of Monday afternoon, Sep-
tember 21, 1925. This was reproduced by the National Association
American people without any comment, for no comment is necessary.
(The article here referred to is made a part of the record as
follows:)

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[The News Scimitar, Memphis, Tenn., September 21, 1925]

NEGRO BURNED BY MOB FOR ATTACK ON GIRL—TOWN QUIET AFTER BLACK TIED TO STAKE BY ANGRY CITIZENS

JACKSON, MISS., September 21 (A. P.).—The time has come when the law-abiding citizens of Mississippi should assert themselves in no uncertain terms against such mob action and should rally to the support of the peace officers in maintaining the integrity of the law, Governor Whitfield declared in a signed statement to-day, in which he denounced the lynching of L. Q. Ivy, a negro, near New Albany yesterday.

[Special to the News Scimitar]

NEW ALBANY, MISS., September 20.—New Albany and Etta community were quiet to-day following the burning to death Sunday afternoon of J. P. Ivy, negro timber cutter, who was said by Sheriff John W. Roberts to have confessed Friday to attacking 21-year-old Bessie Gaines.

Morning reports indicated that an investigation of the burning would be made, but up to noon to-day these rumors had not been verified from authentic sources.

A mob, composed of more than 1,000 residents of Union and Lee counties, empowered Sheriff Roberts of Union and Sheriff Reese of Lee, took the negro, tied him to an improvised stake and burned him.

The negro was taken when Sheriff Roberts, acting on a writ issued in a justice court, was escorting him to the home of the attacked girl's father, Bob Gaines, for identification. The writ was obtained by a group of Etta residents, who alleged in their petition that the girl was in a grave condition and that unless identification was immediate she might die before pointing out the negro as the one who assaulted her.

Many prominent citizens attempted to persuade the mob to allow the courts to decide the black's fate, but of no avail. Although a search was made by the mob Sunday afternoon for three other negroes, said to have been implicated in the attack, it is believed that the officers now have the situation well in hand; and should the three negroes be taken they will be turned over to the sheriff, it is said.

ANOTHER LYNCHED

MACON, GA., September 21 (A. P.).—The Macon News to-day says Willie Dixon, negro inmate of the State insane sanitarium at Milledgeville, who last week killed Miss Amy Oxford, a nurse, last night was taken from the institution and lynched.

SEES NEGRO BURNED AT STAKE—ROCKY FORD MOB CALLOUS TO VICTIM'S SUFFERING, EYEWITNESS SAYS

(By J. L. Roulhae)

I watched a negro burned at the stake at Rocky Ford, Miss., Sunday afternoon. I watched an angry mob chain him to an iron stake. I watched them pile wood around his helpless body. I watched them pour gasoline on this wood. And I watched three men set the wood on fire.

I stood in a crowd of 600 people as the flames gradually crept nearer and nearer to the helpless negro. I watched the blaze climb higher and higher, encircling him without mercy. I heard his cry of agony as the flames reached him and set his clothing on fire.

"Oh, God! Oh, God!" he shouted. "I didn't do it. Have mercy!" The blaze leaped higher. The negro struggled. He kicked the chain loose from his ankles but it held his waist and neck against the iron post that was becoming red with the intense heat.

"Have mercy, I didn't do it," he shouted again.

"You should have thought of this before," some one shouted from the crowd. There was an instant of silence. Then several voices rose in agreement.

["26", "TO PREVENT AND PUNISH THE CRIME OF LYNCHING", "ment. Nowhere was there a sign of mercy among the members of the mob, nor did they seem to regret the horrible thing they had done. The negro had supposedly sinned against their race, and he died a death of torture.", "Soon he became quiet. There was no doubt that he was dead. The flames jumped and leaped above his head. An odor of burning flesh reached my nostrils. I felt suddenly sickened. Through the leaping blaze I could see the negro sagging, and supported by the chains.", "The setting was a little sawmill. The crowd stood on a huge pile of sawdust and the negro's death pyre was in a small gully beside it. They calmly watched the flames leap and dance. There was no talking now; everything was silent.", "When the first odor of the baking flesh reached the mob there was a slight stir. Several men moved nervously.", "\"Let's finish it up,\" someone said.", "Instantly about 12 men stepped from the crowd. They piled wood on the fire that was already blazing high. The negro was dead, but more wood was piled on the flames. They jumped higher and higher. Nothing could be seen now, for the blaze encircled everything.", "Then the crowd walked away. In the vanguard of the mob I noticed a woman. She seemed to be rather young, yet it is hard to tell about women of her type; strong and healthy, apparently a woman of the country. She walked with a firm, even stride. She was beautiful in a way.", "The crowd walked slowly away.", "\"I'm hungry,\" some one complained. \"Let's get something to eat.\"", "\"I'm hungry, too,\" said another.", "\"We'll have to go to New Albany,\" some one said. \"We've bought out all the food in the Rocky Ford stores.\"", "\"We might go to Myrtle,\" said another.", "## FORGET NEGRO", "The crowd loaded into automobiles. The negro, who was still chained to the white hot stake with the red-blue flames leaping about him, was forgotten. The crowd was hungry and was going in search of food.", "A white girl was criminally assaulted in a pea field Friday morning by an unknown negro. He escaped in the woods. The county sheriff organized a posse and captured L. Q. Ivy, who denied having anything to do with the attack.", "He was taken to Tupelo for safekeeping. Rocky Ford citizens went into court and obtained a writ forcing the sheriff to return the negro to New Albany for identification. In a New Albany hospital the girl was asked to identify the one who had attacked her.", "Then the officers started to take him out of town. Crowds filled the streets. The officers started out the Myrtle road. The mob jumped in their cars and followed. At a bridge an attempt was made to block the road, but it failed. found two cars across the road. They were forced to stop. The mob surrounded them. Several pistols were drawn, but no shots were fired. The caravan of cars started toward Rocky Ford.", "## NEGRO CONFESSES", "At Rocky Ford they took the negro to a deserted barn, where he was asked to confess. He refused. He was beaten, suspended from a rafter by innocence.", "Satisfied of his guilt, the mob took him to the sawmill. While men were taken to the top of the sawdust pile.", "The negro stood on top of the pile with his head bent and prayed. Then he was asked if he wished to confess. He admitted to the crowd that he was guilty and under questioning told the details of the crime. Then he was chained to the stake and the fire lighted. He screamed twice, denying his guilt, and then he was silent.", "The mob talked of burning three other negroes whom Ivy had implicated in his confession before the blaze was lighted. But Ivy's horrible death apparently satisfied it, and no further lynchings were attempted.", "TO PREVENT AND PUNISH THE CRIME OF LYNCHING", "27", "## MOB MEMBER LAUGHS AT PROBE—OFFICERS WON'T ACT, HE SAYS, DECLARING NEGRO POSITIVELY IDENTIFIED", "\"Governor Whitfield won't have a lick of luck with any investigation of the burning of Jim Ivy.\"", "So declared William N. Bradshaw, of Union County, Miss., admittedly a member of the mob that for 48 hours sought the negro accused of criminally attacking a white girl near Rocky Ford, Miss., Friday morning, in a statement to The News Scimitar this morning.", "\"And furthermore,\" he continued, \"not an officer in Union County or any of the neighbor counties will point out any member of the crowd. Why, if he did, the best thing for him to do would be to jump into an airplane headed for Germany—quick.\"", "\"Sure, the officers know who were there. Everybody down there knows everybody else. We're all neighbors and neighbors' neighbors.\"", "\"I've known Sheriff Johnny Roberts since he was knee high to a duck, and I was one of the delegation that called on him Friday night and told him we were tired of him dilly-dallying and that he'd have to produce that negro or take the consequences.\"", "Mr. Bradshaw, who said he was not present at the burning of Ivy Sunday morning at Rocky Ford, \"but would have been if I could have gotten there,\" declared the negro was positively identified as the girl's assallant and twice confessed to the crime.", "\"When the girl was carried to her home after the attack in the pea field, she told her parents 'Jim Ivy did it,'\" Mr. Bradshaw declared. \"Then, when Sheriff Roberts went and got him, he confessed to the sheriff, and when he was taken before the girl at the hospital, she identified him after one glance, and then turned her head away. He confessed, too, to the crowd of 600 people 5 minutes before he was burned.\"", "Sheriff Roberts tried to \"double cross\" the mob and save the negro, Mr. Bradshaw said, and it was during the chase that followed that gunplay really threatened for the only time during the two days.", "\"Saturday night there were at least 10,000 men with pistols on their hips in New Albany, the county seat,\" Mr. Bradshaw said, \"but it was a perfectly orderly crowd. Everybody was in their shirt sleeves, and no one tried to conceal his identity.\"", "\"Then United States Senator Hubert D. Stephens got up and tried to talk the crowd into dispersing and going home, and he was booed down. The boys didn't like for him to butt in. 'Go on home yourself. When we want your advice we'll ask for it,' they told him.\"", "\"Then a delegation of us went to Johnny (the sheriff), and told him we were tired of fooling around, and that he had to produce Ivy or take the consequences. He said, 'Well, boys, I'll bring the negro to the hospital at 9 o'clock in the morning for the girl to identify him, and then I'll put him in the county jail here. If you let me get him in jail and locked up, and then overpower me and get him, I can't help it.'\"", "\"We agreed to that, and next morning the sheriff brought Ivy to the hospital. After the girl identified the negro, the sheriff and his deputies and Sheriff Reece, of Lee County, put the negro into an automobile and started through the mob to the jail. They didn't stop, though, but went on through Main Street as fast as they could. At a bridge just out of town they dropped a couple of deputies to block the way and went on.", "\"A man who works near the bridge telephoned ahead to Myrtle that they were coming, and two cars from that city came out to meet them and they told the deputies that if they (the deputies) didn't clear the bridge. They told the deputies that if they (the deputies) didn't clear the bridge quickly, they'd shoot their way through, and they would have. So the road quickly, they'd shoot their way through, and they caught up with deputies opened the road and let them by and the crowd caught up with deputies opened the road and let them

28

A coroner's jury, which investigated the lynching, returned a verdict that Ivy came to his death "at the hands of a mob, the members of which are unknown." Judge T. B. Pegram, of the third judicial district, announced he would order a rigid grand jury investigation when court convenes.

But, according to Bradshaw, Union County isn't worrying.

**Senator KING.** That would not be any more artocious than where those white men, miners, were butchered out in Illinois, at Herrin, would it, if you were making comparisons?

**Mr. JOHNSON.** I think there is some distinction in that men are arrayed against each other, bodies of men, and whatever happens in connection therewith. Of course, we may find things as atrocious in the World War as anything that has happened in the records of lynchings, but where men are arrayed against each other, and especially in time of peace, both sides citizens of the same country, I think you can find a distinction. For instance, here a mob falls upon a solitary victim and wreaks its vengeance in this terrible manner.

And I might remind you that there have been published in some of our American newspapers even notices of lynchings. I have at my office and can send to the committee clippings from newspapers advertising that a negro will be burned at 5 o'clock in the afternoon. That was the language used. And trainloads of people were run to the place to witness the orgy. Now, gentlemen of the committee, the facts are undisputed and they are plentiful. They have been widely published and widely distributed, and I do not believe that any American citizen can doubt the need of checking, of stamping out, of abolishing this horrible crime, lynching.

Of course, the most of the doubt about such a law hangs upon its constitutionality. I should like to say to the committee that Mr. H. K. Stockton, a member of the legal committee of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and who has had a good deal to do with this legislation, who in fact made a redraft of the bill we are considering, and who, so far as I know, has the constitutional points of this matter at his finger tips better than anybody else, was to have been here to-day, but he is sick in bed with pneumonia and could not come. I should like to ask the committee the privilege that he may at a later time be allowed to file a brief on the subject.

**Senator KING.** Very well, that privilege will be granted him.

**Mr. JOHNSON.** In fact, he did submit in a letter to Senator Borah when this subject was up in the Sixty-seventh Congress his idea about many of the constitutional points. That was printed by the Senate committee in the Sixty-seventh Congress. I do not know whether it would be proper to make it a part of the record in this hearing or not, but I should very much like to do it.

**Senator KING.** If it would be a repetition of the facts he intends to cover in his brief, there could be no necessity for making it a part of this record. But if it is supplemental or in addition to what will be covered in his brief, all right.

**Mr. JOHNSON.** Just as you say. I can have him go over this if you wish?

**Senator KING.** If Senator Gillett approves I will say that if Mr. Stockton regards this as supplemental and in addition to his brief we will receive both; but if he feels that his brief will cover the point, there could be no necessity to make it a part of our record.

29

**Mr. JOHNSON.** All right; I will call that to his attention. Now, as to the constitutionality of this bill I will express my ideas merely as a layman. It appears that this bill rests solely upon the clause of section 1 of the fourteenth amendment, which reads:

> Nor shall any State * * * deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

It seems to me that the meaning of that language is clear. It does not mean only that no State shall pass discriminatory statutes; it means also that a State must enforce all laws so that all persons within its jurisdiction shall enjoy their protection equally. The clause under discussion is distinctly set out in the preceding provision against discriminatory laws. It appears, too, that this amendment was adopted for the specific purpose of meeting such a contingency as this measure proposes to meet—that is, securing to the negro the equal protection of the laws. And I do not think anyone would contend that the chief victims of lynching receive at the present time the equal protection of the laws.

The chief constitutional objection to such legislation is that the Federal Government has no more warrant to step in to punish lynching in the States than it has to prevent or punish any other form of murder or any other crime—arson, for example. I think it is safe to say that lynching is not simply murder; that it is murder plus something else. It is murder plus revolution and anarchy. It is murder plus a flaunting and overthrowing and tramping under foot of the prerogatives of the courts. The mob apprehends the victim, tries and condemns, and then executes him. That is, in committing murder the mob arrogates to itself the rights and powers of the courts. That makes the crime to my mind not simply one of murder.

But if we define lynching as murder we are still confronted with the fact that it is a form of murder the States have shown themselves unable to deal with. There is not a State in the Union that fails to cope more or less adequately with simple murder and that of the other average crimes. But murder at the hands of a mob, it would seem, presents a question which the States have not been able to cope with. And that is why we are asking for the passage of a measure of this kind. It is not in any sense a force bill. In fact, this measure as it reads is a bill to assist the States really in affording to all persons within their jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. We feel that the facts warrant such legislation, that there is need for it, that it is constitutional, and should be enacted.

I thank you, gentlemen of the committee.

(James Weldon Johnson, secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, 69 Fifth Avenue, New York City, N. Y., in accordance with permission heretofore granted, submits as to the constitutionality of the antilynching legislation now pending in the Judiciary Committee of the Senate the following:)

AS TO THE CONSTITUTIONALITY OF THIS BILL

The bare recital of the facts as to the prevalence of the crime of lynching in the United States raises in every mind the question of what this Congress can do to end such a cowardly and savage practice. It is no longer a problem peculiar to any section of our country. It has existed and still exists only because lynchings are the work of mobs, and, with a few honorable exceptions,

85065—26—3

36

(See Dale County v. Gunter, 46 Ala. 111; De Kalb v. Smith, 47 Ala. 407; Cantey v. Clarendon County, 101 S. C. 141; Atchinson v. Twine, 9 Kans. 350; Cherryvale v. Hawman, 80 Kans. 170; P., C., C. & St. L. Ry. Co. v. Chicago, (242 Ell. 178; 11 Cy. C. 500, 501.)

Section 7 rests on the Federal authority derived from its treaty power. Obviously, when the United States has accepted toward foreign powers respon-
sibility for the acts or omissions of local State agents, it should be empowered to proceed directly against lynchers, when, as we have shown, the local agents have shown themselves unable or unwilling to do so. This section is con-
stitutional independent of the fourteenth amendment.

We conclude that the constitutionality of this bill to assure to persons within the jurisdiction of every State the equal protection of the laws and to punish the crime of lynching is reasonably certain. While we recognize that Congress is not empowered to pass upon the constitutionality of such a law as is the court of last resort, we feel bound to say, in recommending this bill for passage, that if it were to be held unconstitutional it would appear to our minds that the fourteenth amendment to the Constitution would thereby be divested of its meaning and of its purpose. We are the more confident that the court will find this bill constitutional in view of its very recent pronounce-
ment in the case of Moore v. Dempsey decided February 19, 1923. That was an appeal from an order dismissing a writ of habeas corpus, the ground of the petition for the writ being that the proceedings in the State court of Arkansas (whereby the appellants, five negroes, were convicted of murder), although a trial in form, were only a form, and that the appellants were hurried to conviction under the pressure of a mob without any regard for their rights and without according them due process of law. The court reversed the order and restored the writ of habeas corpus, holding that the district court must determine whether the facts alleged as to the trial being dominated by the mob were true. The court says, per Holmes, J.:

"In Frank v. Mangum (237 U. S. 309, 335) it was recognized, of course, that if in fact a trial is dominated by a mob so that there is an actual interference with the course of justice, there is a departure from due process of law; and that 'if the State, supplying no corrective process, carries into execution a judgment of death or imprisonment based upon a verdict thus produced by mob domination, the State deprives the accused of his life or liberty without due process of law.' We assume in accordance with that case that the cor-
rective process supplied by the State may be so adequate that interference by habeas corpus ought not to be allowed. It certainly is true that mere mis-
takes of law in the course of a trial are not to be corrected in that way. But if the case is that the whole proceeding is a mask—that counsel, jury, and judge were swept to the fatal end by an irresistible wave of public passion, and that the State courts failed to correct the wrong, neither perfection in the machinery for correction nor the possibility that the trial court and counsel saw no other way of avoiding an immediate outbreak of the mob can prevent this court from securing to the petitioners their constitutional rights."

The implications of this decision are of significance in connection with such legislation as is proposed herewith, because in such a case the United States Supreme Court examines into the State court trial, and, regardless of the approval of that trial by the State court of appeal, determines for itself whether or not the proceedings were dominated by the mob, so as not to consti-
tute due process of law. Upon so finding, the Federal court will take action directly with regard to the individuals involved so as to make good to them the constitutional guaranty under the fourteenth amendment that the State shall not deprive them of life or liberty without due process of law.

In analogous fashion the present bill will, we confidently believe, be upheld as appropriate legislation to make good the guaranty of the fourteenth amend-
ment to those who suffer from the unequal administration of the State laws, which now fail to protect them from the lynching mobs. Such an appeal to this legislative body, which represents all the people of this country and which is commanded by the highest law of the land to see that none of them is denied the equal protection of the laws of the States, must not fall on deaf ears.

We therefore recommend the passage of this bill to assure to persons within the jurisdiction of every State the equal protection of the laws and to punish the crime of lynching.

37

Hon. WILLIAM B. MCKINLEY,

United States Senate, Washington, D. C.:

NEW YORK, N. Y., February 25, 1926.

Follows memorandum on antilyching bill in its present form now before the Senate Judiciary Committee:

To the subcommittee of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary:

Certain criticisms of the form of the bill which was presented to the Sixty-
eighth Congress made by the minority of the House Judiciary Commit-
tee in their Report No. 71 of the Sixty-eighth Congress, first session,
and in such debate upon the bill as was made on the floor of the Senate in
November and December, 1922, as well as certain defects which appear on a
close reading of the text of the bill as presented to the Sixty-eighth Congress,
have occasioned a revision of the text of that former bill so as to meet the
merits contained in these objections and criticisms. The principal changes
are as follows:

"First. The former bill, H. R. 1 in the Sixty-eighth Congress, was so worded as to cover only the acts of mobs depriving any person of his life, and the succeeding sections contain language appropriate to this limited pur-
view. Everybody knows that a great deal of the terrorism exercised in various
parts of the country by mobs, such as the whitecapping activities in the
South, fall short of murder, but may none the less have most serious conse-
quences to the individuals mobbed. There have therefore been inserted
throughout the bill in addition to the words 'for the purpose of depriving
any person of his life' the words 'or doing him physical injury.' Second,
a serious criticism was made by the minority of the committee in Report No.
71 and by certain Senators during discussion in the Senate on the provison
of the law that the mob or riotous assemblage is only subject to provisions
of the bill when its acts are intended or done as a punishment for or to prevent
this commission of some actual or supposed public offense. In response to
this constructive criticism these words have been eliminated in various minor
particulars. Furthermore, the bill now before this committee has been im-
proved over the bill which came before the Sixty-eighth Congress.

"HERBERT K. STOCKTON,

"Member Legal Committee,

"National Association for the Advancement of Colored People."

Senator KING (presiding). Doctor Branham will be the next speaker.

STATEMENT OF REV. J. H. BRANHAM, ASSISTANT PASTOR OF
OLIVET BAPTIST CHURCH, CHICAGO, Ill.

Mr. BRANHAM. Gentlemen of the committee, to be brief, viewing this matter from the standpoint of the minister of the gospel, I take it that we are not here today in the interest of any particular race so much as we are in the interest of the American citizen. Of course, as a rule, we understand that against a certain number of American citizens in that group there comes the charge sometimes of an attack on women folk; and I think we should take the time to say to this committee at no time, under no circumstances do we stand for the mistreatment of a woman, regardless of who she may be. Our sym-
pathy goes out to her, and we stand for the enforcement of the law in handling such cases. I do not think at any time a person who is charged with an offense of that kind should escape the law. So it is not that we are here unmindful of the fact that wherever these things are true, that is, where it happens that some man has mis-
treated a woman, that he should go unpunished. But we have a law to handle all such cases, and since this law is to be applied to all American citizens we do feel that the law should always take its

38

course, and whatever the punishment meted out by the law, the of-
fender should be made to suffer.

We further realize that America is looked upon and regarded as
the most outstanding nation in the world, and this is one crime that,
it seems to me, has settled down upon us, not on any particular
group but that all the American people are affected, and that it is
a reflection on every last one of the American citizens. From that
viewpoint we do think that a measure of this kind should prevail
for the purpose of checking that group of men that would lose their
temper and would forget themselves and attempt to take the law
in hand, and by so doing I think it is an established fact that the
innocent at times have suffered because of undue haste.

Now, gentlemen of the committee, to be brief and just to sum
it all up in a nutshell, this is a matter that should claim the attention
of the American people to the extent that we should not permit any-
thing in the way of a breaking down of the law, the taking of the
law in hand by some individual or mob. We have elected to office
men who are sworn to carry out the law, and we as American
people should not premit these things to happen, that would take
away from those who are duly elected the right and duty to execute
the laws, and permit that power and authority to go over into the
hands of those who are not so elected and responsible.

In closing, I feel that this committee is cognizant of the fact
that it is not a reflection upon just one person, or any group of
persons, but it is a reflection upon the entire American nation to
sit idly by and not do something that would check those who would
take into their own hands, regardless of law, the execution of their
own wishes in connection with other American citizens.

Of course, some people think this matter affects the colored people
alone. The sinner is heartless, sin is blind, going from bad to
worse. It may start out on some weaker person or weaker group,
but if it is permitted to go on it is going to stick its fangs into all
it comes in contact with.

Some mention was made of conditions during the World War,
and mention was made of the Herrin massacre. I should like to
say that we had in Springfield, Mo., a lynching—not of a black
man, but of a white man, and for that reason I do not think any-
one should view this proposition as being confined to the colored
people. It is a subject that should concern the American people as
a whole, as an evil that is growing, or liable to grow even though
the statistics may show that it has been reduced somewhat in recent
years. Unless there is some curb to it no one can tell just where it
may stop.

I believe that is all I care to say at this time, and I thank you,
gentlemen of the committee.

Senator KING (presiding). Who is the next speaker?

Senator MCKINLEY. Next is Mr. James L. Neill, of the National
Equal Rights League.

Senator KING (presiding). Come forward, please, and give to the
shorthand reporter your name and address.

39

STATEMENT OF JAMES L. NEILL, RECORDING SECRETARY OF THE
NATIONAL EQUAL RIGHTS LEAGUE, WASHINGTON, D. C.

MR. NEILL. I represent the National Equal Rights League, as
recording secretary. I wish to simply briefly refer to what I con-
sider the strongest influence that should cause the action which is
now proposed against lynching, and that is the public sentiment of
the South itself has so changed that lynching has become even in
the South a thing that is despised and hated.

The interracial movement in the South, whereby the best elements
of the two races meet together and discuss racial conditions, is a
manifestation of the fact that a change of public sentiment has taken
place. It has shown that questions affecting the negro can be dis-
cussed by the representatives of both races.

And then, too, the women of the South, who have been especially
held up as the cause of mob law and lynchings, these women them-
selves have come out and publicly declared that no longer would
they stand for that excuse for this unreasonable crime.

In the pulpit in the South the sentiment against lynching and
mob law is equally strong. It seems to me that when the senti-
ment has become so changed in the South, and when we add to that
a sentiment that has always been strong in the North, the Congress,
and the Senator who has in hand this particular bill, should be
inspired that he and they have the sentiment of the Nation in his
and their favor.

I wish to refer to the fact that lynching can be prevented; it only
needs the strong arm of the law to bring about prevention. You will
recall that—

Senator KING (interposing). As I interpret your statement, you
think that the diminution—and that seems to be borne out by the
figures submitted by Mr. Johnson—in the crime of lynching is due
to a growth in public sentiment against lynching. Now, if that
sentiment shall continue—and every decent and patriotic citizen
of this country, of course, feels that it should continue—and no
doubt they all feel, as they should feel, that it should be compel-
ling—it is only a question of a very short time when this crime will
be effaced entirely from our country.

Mr. NEILL. I hope so. And I would hope that there might never
be another lynching anywhere in the United States. But why wait
and hope for the influence of public sentiment and let other inno-
cent victims be lynched? While we are waiting for public sentiment
to so crystallize that it will remove lynching other victims will
have suffered, and the good name of this Nation will suffer in the
eyes of the world. I had in mind to add that public sentiment
crystallized in the form of law is but public opinion expressed in
a form that will bind all of the public.

Senator KING. Generally speaking, do you think that the Federal
Government is more effective in enforcing the law than the States?
I might remind you that the Federal Government has been trying
for years to enforce the prohibition law, and while I shall not
comment on its successes or its failures, for the situation is a matter
of general information, yet these and many other offenses have

40

been created by Federal statute, and I think an examination of the records will disclose that the Federal Government is not clothed with omnipotence or omniscience.

MR. NEILL. I might say that I believe if the prohibition law had behind it a strong public sentiment it would and could be enforced. The trouble is that public sentiment is not behind it.

Senator KING. Then the question comes back to public sentiment as the great curative agency with reference to the evils in the land.

MR. NEILL. Yes, sir; I think our laws are but an expression of public sentiment.

Senator KING (presiding). You may continue your statement.

MR. NEILL. I was saying that it has been demonstrated lynching can be prevented and was about to state an instance recently in Louisville, Ky., where the militia was called out by the governor to protect the accused during his trial. There was present a mob of something like five thousand people about the court house, and yet, under that protection which any person, white or black, should have, if need be, no attempt at lynching was made. My point is that although in States like Kentucky there might be no need for any antilynching bill, yet in many States, like Mississippi, for instance, it has been shown to be needed. In Mississippi a lynching took place and the participants were apprehended and brought to trial, but a jury refused to convict them, although they knew they were guilty. It is in just such cases that Federal legislation should come in, and by proper provision compel a State to protect an accused; wherever there is laxity in the enforcement of the law, or lack of protection of the accused, the Federal Government should step in and accord that protection and save the lives of its citizens.

I believe if this proposition were submitted to a vote of the people, as were the two recent amendments, that it would be shown the people are strongly in favor of just the thing we are here to consider—some kind of Federal enactment that will protect the lives of innocent victims or persons accused of crime and give them an opportunity of trial, guaranteed to them by the Constitution.

In this connection, the main thought that I have is that all of this paraphernalia of the courts in the South are in the hands of the southerners, and there is no danger of an accused escaping. And when you consider that fact, it makes the crime of lynching all the more reprehensible, because wherever one is accused of crime and is apprehended, all that is necessary is for him to be taken into court, and, as was the case recently—only last week, I believe—within about five minutes he was convicted and sentenced to be hanged. So that situation proves to us that there is the greatest inhumanity, yes, brutality, and almost barbarism on the part of those who engage in lynching, and that it can only be stopped by the strong hand of Federal law. And it seems to me that every argument from that standpoint is in favor of just the kind of legislation that is now being considered by your committee.

Gentlemen, I wish to thank you for your consideration.

Senator KING (presiding). Who will you have next?

Senator MCKINLEY. Next will be Mr. Clarke.

Senator KING (presiding). Come forward and state your name and whom you represent.

TO PREVENT AND PUNISH THE CRIME OF LYNCHING 41

STATEMENT OF THOMAS H. R. CLARKE, OF THE NATIONAL EQUAL RIGHTS LEAGUE, WASHINGTON, D. C.

MR. CLARKE. My name is Thomas H. R. Clarke, and I am a member of the National Equal Rights League.

MR. CLARKE. The reason I am here to-day, Senators, is because the colored people, especially in the South, are not in a position to protect themselves. If they were in a position to protect themselves we would not be here to-day asking you to enact this bill. And the colored people of the South are not in position to protect themselves because they have been stripped of every civil and political right guaranteed they in the great reconstruction acts. And they have been in that weakened political condition for nearly 50 years.

In spite of the immense properties which they have acquired during the last 40 years and the large amount of taxes which they pay in every southern State to help support those States in their governmental functions, the colored people of the South have no representation in their State legislatures. They are denied the right to hold office, and in most of the southern States they are denied the right to sit on juries, with the result that if a colored man in any community in the South is even charged with crime some man who may have personal enmity against him is likely to be able to convict him, with the result that even a charge is almost equivalent to conviction. And if such a man or some of his friends should get together to resent the charge, he or they may be lynched, and the perpetrators of the crime will go unwhipped of justice.

The particular thing I desire to say, and then I will close, is this: A bill similar to this passed the House of Representatives before. Mr. Dyer, who is a personal friend of mine, and whom I have known for many years, for we worked in the same office at one time before he became a Member of Congress; I say Mr. Dyer worked in season and out of season with his contemporaries in the House, convincing many of them of the constitutionality of his measure, and, in time, he was enabled to get enough converts to his view of the constitutionality of the measure to give him an opportunity to pass it in the House. It finally came to the Senate. It was then referred to a subcommittee and it remained in the jurisdiction of that subcommittee, for no report was ever made. And we understood, our delegations understood, that the reason the subcommittee made no report was because there were gentlemen on that subcommittee who had to be convinced about the constitutionality of the measure.

In conclusion, Senators, I say this: I have read the debates in the Committee on Reconstruction when Thaddeus Stevens was chairman of the committee and when the fourteenth amendment was being framed, and they very comprehensively did two things: Prior to the enactment of the fourteenth amendment to the Constitution there was only one kind of citizenship in the United States, and that was State citizenship. But Thaddeus Stevens and other men of that committee said: We must make a dual citizenship. We must make a man not only a citizen of the State in which he lives, but a citizen of the United States, in order that the Federal Government may protect him if his life, his liberty, or his property is invaded. And it is

42

under this duality of citizenship of a man that the Federal Govern-
ment has the constitutional right, as we claim, to step into any
State to protect a man in the enjoyment of life, liberty, and prop-
erty, and in that clause, if the creation of that dual citizenship had
never been put in the Constitution of the United States, we maintain
that under the general welfare clause in the Constitution the Con-
gress of the United States would have the constitutional right to
protect a man when a State failed to do it, and when that man
represented a group who had been stripped of every civil and politi-
cal right.

The condition to-day in every southern State is: Pay your taxes
and shut your mouth. That is what they tell colored men. And that
is what they have been doing for 40 years, paying their taxes and
shutting their mouths, and being conscripted to fight for the United
States Government, not for State governments. And I sincerely
hope that this bill will become a law, because the colored people have
met every responsibility that has confronted them during the last
half century. They have contributed their share in the work of the
world. They have contributed their share in defending this Nation,
and all that we ask now is that this Nation, through the function of
the Federal Government, will defend them, not in the enjoyment of
their civil and political rights, because we can clearly see that that
is some distance off, but we merely ask that they be defended in the
protection of their lives.

Senator KING. Are there any others who wish to be heard?

STATEMENT OF MRS. MARY CHURCH TERRELL, WASHINGTON,
D. C.

Senator KING. Will you please give your name and your residence?

Mrs. TERRELL. Mary Church Terrell, 1615 S Street. And I might say that I am the first president of the National Association of Colored Women. I come to say perhaps a rather peculiar thing. I come in the interest of colored women, but in the interest of white women who live in the South as well. Of course colored women have been lynched, as you know. I do not like to refer to a barbarous lynching which occurred in Georgia some years ago, when a colored woman who was about to become a mother was lynched, and her unborn babe was torn from her. Things like that have happened with colored women more than once.

But I have come to speak in the interest of the white women of
the South. We all know what heredity is. We must believe in
heredity. And I maintain that white women who apply the torch
to burn colored men, as they have done more than once, when they
become the mothers of children, those children undoubtedly will be
brutalized, and I think it is going to be more and more difficult to
stop lynching, as has been suggested here, because the white mothers
of the South are becoming more and more brutalized by these lynch-
ings in which they themselves participate.

And, of course, in speaking of the interests of white mothers who
are being brutalized by these lynchings I am speaking in the interest
of the colored children of the future, the colored people of the
future, who are going to be more and more victims of these mobs,

43

and the lynching bees, because of the brutality of the white women
who participate in them, who hear them and who see them.

And for that reason I hope some way will be found to pass the
Dyer antilynching bill, not only in the interest of the colored people,
but in the interest particularly of the white women of the South.

Thank you.

Senator KING. Are there any other witnesses?

STATEMENT OF EDGAR G. BROWN, NEW YORK CITY

Mr. BROWN. Senator King, Senator Deneen, and Senator Gillett, it is certainly a pleasure to come before three men who have always stood for the rights of the people who are lowest down, and who have the least chance in life, and I am mighty glad to say for a number of newspaper men, who have had constantly an opportunity to study the public life of these particular gentlemen who are present at this committee, whom a number of people here in this hearing probably do not know are all men who are favorably inclined to give a very charitable and fair, and by their past record, a very sympathetic ear to the cause of all of the downtrodden people, and it is certainly a wonderful opportunity at this time to come with men like Mr. Johnson of the National Association for the Advance of Colored people and Doctor Branham, who represents the National Convention of Baptists of this country, and Dr. R. A. Williams of the Supreme Royal Circle of Friends of the World, the other gentlemen representing the National Equal Rights League among the people of America and Mrs. Mary Church Terrell, who has given her whole life that all women might have a happier life in America.

And I think that there is not any argument that can be further advanced as to the necessity of this legislation. I think that we can well leave it in the hands of these men who have always been our friends, and who are now on this subcommittee, and I am quite sure that they will not only report it out, but see that other men who may not be for the bill now will give it every consideration that the honor and fair name of America may still be the beacon light for the rest of the world, which the world will look toward and follow.

Thank you.

Senator KING. Are there any other speakers?

STATEMENT OF MRS. M. D. BUTLER, WASHINGTON, D. C.

MRS. BUTLER. I am the vice president of the National Political
Study Club, assistant secretary of the local branch of the N. W.
C. P., and a member of the Equal Rights League, secretary of the
women's district federation, and a member of everything that is
for the uplift of the race.

I want to say something because as a child I lived through the
terrors of a lynching. There were eight men lynched in my town.
My sister married the son of one of the men who was lynched—she
married him afterwards, and so I know something about what a
lynching means. A whole town terrorized, women and children
shrieking up and down the streets. Since that time, years after-

44

wards, a confession was made by another man that he killed the white man that six of those colored men were lynched about. One of those men was lynched because he had a business place, a pool room and restaurant in which the white man was killed. That colored man had nothing in the world to do with that killing. The white man came in that pool room to kill a colored man with his gun in his hand wrapped up in a piece of paper, and the colored man who did the shooting escaped, and the man who owned the business was arrested, and when the mob came to jail to get the man who did the killing the other men were lynched too. The saddest thing. Never will I be able to get over it, never will I forget it. And so those kind of things are happening all over our country, every week the sad experience is being lived over by others.

Senator KING. May I interrupt you to say, madam, that Mr. Johnson, in a very clear and precise address alluded to the fact that the diminution in lynching was very great, and that these last 7 years the number had been reduced to 16 and 18 per annum, so that there could not be lynchings every week.

MRS. BUTLER. Well, our papers say that they are so often that it impresses one's heart as if it is almost every day, the sadness and the horror of it is so great.

I want to say this because there is no hope of it being stopped by States. The people of the country are looking across to the men on this hill, and if we lose the hope here, whither will our hope turn? We are looking to God and we are looking to the men who sit on Capitol Hill to pass some law, to do something that is going to make the lives of the negroes of the United States safer, and that is going to make the lives of the negroes of the country sweeter and better, and thereby we make better citizens, and the white and the colored people will be happier and better.

Thank you.

Senator KING. If there are no other witnesses the hearing will be closed for the day.

(Whereupon, at 12.10 p. m., Tuesday, February 16, 1926, the hearing was closed.)

X

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1926

[S. 121, Sixty-ninth Congress, first session]

1

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exceeding five years or by a fine of not exceeding $5,000, or by both such fine and imprisonment.

Any State or municipal officer, acting as such officer under authority of State law, having in its custody or control a prisoner, who shall conspire, combine, or confederate with any person to injure or put such prisoner to death without authority of law, or who shall conspire, combine, or confederate with any person to suffer such prisoner to be taken or obtained from his custody or control for the purpose of being injured or put to death without authority of law shall be guilty of a felony, and those who so conspire, com- bine, or confederate with such officer shall likewise be guilty of a felony. On conviction the parties participating therein shall be punished by imprisonment for life or not less than five years.

SEC. 4. That the district court of the judicial district wherein a person is injured or put to death by a mob or riotous assemblage shall have jurisdiction to try and punish, in accordance with the laws of the State where the injury is inflicted or the homicide is committed, those who participate therein: Pro- vided, That it is first made to appear to such court that the officers of the State charged with the duty of prosecuting such offense under the laws of the State fail, neglect, or refuse to apprehend or punish such participants, or that the jurors obtainable for service in the State court having jurisdiction of the offense are so strongly opposed to such punishment that there is no reasonable probability that those guilty of the offense can be punished in such State court. A failure for more than thirty days after the commission of such an offense to apprehend any of the persons guilty thereof shall be prima facie evidence of such failure, neglect, or refusal.

SEC. 5. That any county in which a person is put to death by a mob or riotous assemblage shall forfeit $10,000, which sum may be recovered by an action therefor in the name of the United States against such county for the use of the family, if any, of the person so put to death; if he had no family, then to his dependent parents, if any; otherwise for the use of the attorney of the United States of the district in which such county is situated in any court of the United States having jurisdiction therein. If such forfeit- ure is not paid upon recovery of a judgment therefor, such court shall have of the county, or may compel the levy and collection of a tax therefor, or may otherwise compel payment thereof by mandamus or other appropriate process; and any officer of such county or other person who disobeys or fails to comply with any lawful order of the court in the premises shall be liable to punishment as for contempt and to any other penalty provided by law therefor.

SEC. 6. That in the event that any person so put to death shall have been transported by such mob or riotous assemblage from one county to another county during the time intervening between his capture and putting to death, the county in which he is seized and the county in which he is put to death shall be jointly and severally liable to pay the forfeiture herein provided.

SEC. 7. That any act committed in any State or Territory of the United States in violation of the rights of a citizen or subject of a foreign country secured to such citizen or subject by treaty between the United States and such foreign country, which act constitutes a crime under the laws of such of the United States, punishable in like manner as in the courts of said State tory, and may be prosecuted in the courts of the United States, and upon con- viction the sentence executed in like manner as sentences upon convictions for crimes under the laws of the United States.

SEC. 8. That in construing and applying this act the District of Columbia shall be deemed a county, as shall also each of the parishes of the State of Louisiana.

That if any section or provision of this act shall be held by any court to be invalid, the balance of the act shall not for that reason be held invalid.

Senator KING. The subcommittee to consider this bill consists of Senators Cummins, Gillett, and myself. Senator Cummins is en- gaged on an important matter before the Interstate Commerce Com-

3

mittee. Senator Gillett is also detained by a committee assignment but expects to get here within a few minutes; and I have left one committee and have a call to two others, but have come here to hear this matter.

STATEMENT OF HON. WILLIAM B. MCKINLEY, UNITED STATES SENATOR FROM ILLINOIS

Senator MCKINLEY. There is pending before the Senate Commit-
tee on the Judiciary a bill dealing with the national shame of lynch-
ings. Hearings have already been had on this measure and it is
believed that the matter will receive full consideration and action
will be had thereon in the present Congress.

Lynching is a form of incipient and sporadic insurrection against the forms of law and organized government and civilized methods by which mobs of lawless persons execute the vengeance of death upon anyone who may for any cause incur the mob's displeasure.

There was a time when these lawless manifestations were of a localized character; but as the practice has continued in time it has grown in extent until now it is national in character, and has even grown to assume something of an international aspect. The very word "lynching" is of exclusive American use, and conveys a meaning in the United States which it has nowhere else in the English-speaking world. In the languages of European nations there is no word conveying the meaning contained in our word "lynching" for the reason that this particular practice of lawlessness exists nowhere else in the civilized world. A practice that is so at variance with all civilized notions of orderly government and that is confined to a single nation is not unworthy of the most serious consideration of national legislatures.

There are available for the consideration of the subject, figures on the question of "lynching" covering a period of 30 years. These statistics have been gathered by the Chicago Tribune, the Tuskegee Institute, and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and are as accurate as the sources from which they were obtained will permit. These sources are the newspapers for period containing accounts of the "lynchings," and special investi- gations undertaken by organizations interested in ameliorating con- ditions growing out of this form of lawlessness.

It appears that for this 30-year period 3,224 persons have been put to death by "lynching" mobs. More than three out of four persons lynched during this period were negroes, the exact figures being 2,522 negroes and 702 whites, the percentage being 78.2 negroes and 21.8 whites. The largest number of lynchings, 2,834, were com- mitted in the South, while in the North there were 219, in the West 156, and in Alaska and unknown localities 15. Lynchings have oc- curred during this period in all the States of the Union except seven. This latter fact gives to the crime its national character. During this same period 50 colored women and 11 white women were lynched in 14 States, 13 of which were Southern States and 1, Ne- braska, a Western State.

4

85065-26-2

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6

Mr. Chairman, Mr. James Weldon Johnson, secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, will speak first.

MR. JOHNSON. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, this bill falls really under three heads:

1. The facts.

Fortunately the facts are well known. For 40 years they have been widely and regularly published in the press of the country. Certain persons have made a systematic study of the facts and figures and have collated them in various documents. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the organization which I represent, through research experts, spent about six months in the Congressional Library here in the city of Washington reading newspapers for 30 years back and tabulating lynchings, and the result was the first authoritative book on the subject. This book is entitled "Thirty Years of Lynching in the United States, 1889-1918." It gives names, dates, places of alleged crimes for which persons have been lynched. In the compilation of this data the newspapers of the localities in which the lynchings occurred were taken as the sources of information. This book contains tables, various crimes alleged for lynching—and, as I have already stated, it contains names, dates, places of alleged crimes for a period of 30 years back, and upon such a subject as you gentlemen now have before you it makes a rather invaluable document. I should like to submit this book for the record.

Mr. JOHNSON. That is right.

Mr. JOHNSON. It may be seen from the record which I have submitted that the crimes alleged as the causes for the lynchings commenced that all sorts, from rape and murder down to impertinent at no period is rape the most frequently alleged offense. Murder holds first place; in fact, rape constitutes less than one-fifth of the

7

Mr. JOHNSON. Yes, sir.

Mr. JOHNSON. That is, this book includes all between the years 1889 and 1918, inclusive.

I have here in my hand a pamphlet which was printed after the data had been collated with just as much scientific care as the book, "Thirty Years of Lynching in the United States, 1889-1918." This pamphlet is entitled, "Women Lynched in the United States Since 1889." It contains names, dates, places of alleged commission of offenses with reference to women lynched in the United States since 1889. This sums up a list of 90 women who have been lynched in the United States since 1889. I should like to submit this pamphlet, which is very short, and which I think should be made a part of the record.

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Mr. JOHNSON. Well, as I have said, I do not believe we could give a very good definition of what lynching is, but in more general terms it is where a mob takes justice into its own hands instead of leaving such matters to the courts.

Senator KING. Where, for instance, a man would be accused of having stolen a horse, or the gold of his associates, and the citizens to be heard, and then would order his death; would you call that lynching?

Mr. JOHNSON. Yes, sir.

Mr. JOHNSON. Offsetting the decrease in lynchings within the last year or two is the brutality and atrocity of some of the lynchings 18 lynching, recorded for 1925—and I might throw in parenthetically that there may have been more lynchings than 18, but we have

11

Lynching record for 1919¹

<table><thead><tr><th>Name</th><th>Date</th><th>Place</th><th>Manner of lynching</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Henry Thomas</td><td>Jan. 18</td><td>Grand Bayou, La.</td><td>Burned.</td></tr><tr><td>Bragg Williams</td><td>Jan. 20</td><td>Hillsboro, Tex.</td><td>Hanged.</td></tr><tr><td>Sampson Smith</td><td>Jan. 30</td><td>Monroe, La.</td><td>Do.</td></tr><tr><td>John Daniels</td><td>Feb. 6</td><td>New Bern, N. C.</td><td>Hanged and shot.</td></tr><tr><td>Will Fortner</td><td>Feb. 14</td><td>Bossier, La.</td><td>Hanged.</td></tr><tr><td>Eugene Green</td><td>Mar. 2</td><td>Belzoni, Miss.</td><td>Cut to pieces.</td></tr><tr><td>Cicero Cage</td><td>Mar. 13</td><td>Tuscaloosa, Ala.</td><td>Shot.</td></tr><tr><td>Joe Walker</td><td>do.</td><td>Greenville, Fla.</td><td>Burned.</td></tr><tr><td>Bud Johnson (soldier)</td><td>Mar. 14</td><td>Pace, Fla.</td><td>Shot.</td></tr><tr><td>Sam McIntyre</td><td>Apr. 14</td><td>Millen, Ga.</td><td>Hanged.</td></tr><tr><td>George Holden</td><td>Apr. 23</td><td>Forrest City, Ark.</td><td>Shot.</td></tr><tr><td>Tom Gwyn</td><td>Apr. 29</td><td>Monroe, La.</td><td>Do.</td></tr><tr><td>Benny Richards</td><td>May 2</td><td>Hickory, N. C.</td><td>Hanged (burned after death).</td></tr><tr><td>Discharged soldier (woman)</td><td>May 9</td><td>Warrentown, Ga.</td><td>Do.</td></tr><tr><td>Lloyd Clay</td><td>do.</td><td>Pickens, Miss.</td><td>Burned.</td></tr><tr><td>Jim Waters</td><td>May 14</td><td>Vicksburg, Miss.</td><td>Do.</td></tr><tr><td>Will Moore</td><td>May 15</td><td>Scott, Ga.</td><td>Hanged and shot.</td></tr><tr><td>Frank Livingston (soldier)</td><td>May 20</td><td>Ten Mile, Miss.</td><td>Burned.</td></tr><tr><td>Jay Lynch (white)</td><td>May 21</td><td>Eldorado, Ark.</td><td>Hanged.</td></tr><tr><td>Berry Washington</td><td>May 30</td><td>Lamar, Mo.</td><td>Do.</td></tr><tr><td>James E. Lewis</td><td>June 6</td><td>Mineral Wells, Miss.</td><td>Do.</td></tr><tr><td>Max Smith</td><td>June 7</td><td>Milan, Ga.</td><td>Shot.</td></tr><tr><td>Clyde Ellison</td><td>June 15</td><td>Prichard, Ala.</td><td>Do.</td></tr><tr><td>Jin McMillan</td><td>June 18</td><td>Abbeyville, S. C.</td><td>Hanged.</td></tr><tr><td>Frank Foukal (white)</td><td>June 22</td><td>Star City, Ark.</td><td>Do.</td></tr><tr><td>John Hartfield</td><td>June 26</td><td>Woodstock, Ala.</td><td>Burned.</td></tr><tr><td>Lije Blake</td><td>do.</td><td>Ellisville, Miss.</td><td>Shot.</td></tr><tr><td>Lemuel Walters</td><td>June 28</td><td>Tillman, S. C.</td><td>Hanged.</td></tr><tr><td>Robert Truett (soldier)</td><td>June 17</td><td>Richton, Miss.</td><td>Do.</td></tr><tr><td>Chilton Jennings</td><td>July 15</td><td>Longview, Tex.</td><td>Do.</td></tr><tr><td>Argie M. Robinson</td><td>July 24</td><td>Loulise, Miss.</td><td>Hanged.</td></tr><tr><td>Charles Kelly (soldier)</td><td>Aug. 1</td><td>Gilmer, Tex.</td><td>Do.</td></tr><tr><td>Jim Grant (soldier)</td><td>Aug. 5</td><td>Clarke County, Ala.</td><td>Shot.</td></tr><tr><td>Walter Elliot</td><td>Aug. 14</td><td>Fayette County, Ga.</td><td>Hanged.</td></tr><tr><td>Eli Cooper</td><td>Aug. 20</td><td>Cochran, Ga.</td><td>Do.</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>Aug. 28</td><td>Pope City, Ga.</td><td>Shot.</td></tr><tr><td></td><td></td><td>Louisburg, N. C.</td><td>Shot (burned after death).</td></tr><tr><td></td><td></td><td>Omemgee, Ga.</td><td>Do.</td></tr></tbody></table>

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<table><thead><tr><th>Years</th><th>Total</th><th>White</th><th>Colored</th><th>Years</th><th>Total</th><th>White</th><th>Colored</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>1889</td><td>175</td><td>80</td><td>95</td><td>1890</td><td>89</td><td>14</td><td>75</td></tr><tr><td>1890</td><td>91</td><td>3</td><td>88</td><td>1910</td><td>90</td><td>10</td><td>80</td></tr><tr><td>1891</td><td>194</td><td>67</td><td>127</td><td>1911</td><td>71</td><td>8</td><td>63</td></tr><tr><td>1892</td><td>226</td><td>71</td><td>155</td><td>1912</td><td>64</td><td>3</td><td>61</td></tr><tr><td>1893</td><td>153</td><td>39</td><td>114</td><td>1913</td><td>48</td><td>1</td><td>47</td></tr><tr><td>1894</td><td>182</td><td>54</td><td>128</td><td>1914</td><td>54</td><td>5</td><td>49</td></tr><tr><td>1895</td><td>178</td><td>68</td><td>110</td><td>1915</td><td>96</td><td>43</td><td>53</td></tr><tr><td>1896</td><td>125</td><td>46</td><td>79</td><td>1916</td><td>58</td><td>7</td><td>51</td></tr><tr><td>1897</td><td>162</td><td>38</td><td>124</td><td>1917</td><td>50</td><td>2</td><td>48</td></tr><tr><td>1898</td><td>127</td><td>24</td><td>103</td><td>1918</td><td>67</td><td>4</td><td>63</td></tr><tr><td>1899</td><td>100</td><td>22</td><td>87</td><td>1919 (2 Mexicans)</td><td>83</td><td>4</td><td>77</td></tr><tr><td>1900</td><td>101</td><td>12</td><td>89</td><td>1920</td><td>65</td><td>8</td><td>57</td></tr><tr><td>1901</td><td>135</td><td>27</td><td>108</td><td>1921</td><td>64</td><td>6</td><td>38</td></tr><tr><td>1902</td><td>94</td><td>10</td><td>84</td><td>1922</td><td>61</td><td>0</td><td>61</td></tr><tr><td>1903</td><td>104</td><td>17</td><td>87</td><td>1923</td><td>28</td><td>2</td><td>26</td></tr><tr><td>1904</td><td>86</td><td>7</td><td>79</td><td>1924</td><td>16</td><td>0</td><td>16</td></tr><tr><td>1905</td><td>65</td><td>5</td><td>60</td><td>1925</td><td>18</td><td>0</td><td>18</td></tr><tr><td>1906</td><td>68</td><td>4</td><td>64</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>1907</td><td>62</td><td>3</td><td>59</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>1908</td><td>100</td><td>8</td><td>92</td><td></td><td>3,559</td><td>722</td><td>2,835</td></tr></tbody></table>

Mr. JOHNSON. Now, I think the need for this legislation is unaniously admitted—at least, a need for stamping out lynching in the United States. There is first to be considered protection of lives of American citizens. I do not see how a nation can arrive at the point of considering itself powerless to protect its own citizens. There is the necessity for respect for law and order. The crime of lynching can not be and has not been limited to negroes. In fact, of the total of 3,559 persons lynched since 1889, 722 of them were white.

Then there is the question of the preservation of our basic institutions and of orderly processes. There is to be considered the influence of the good name and of the honor of the United States among the nations of the world. It must be appalling to every citizen of the United States to know that we live on the only spot, civilized or uncivilized, on the face of the globe where a human being can be burned alive at the stake with immunity.

Senator KING. You do not mean by that statement that there are no statutes within the 48 States of the Union which constitute Mr. JOHNSON. Oh, no.

Mr. JOHNSON. No, sir. I have here a facsimile reproduction from the Memphis News Scimitar of the issue of Monday afternoon, September 21, 1925. This was reproduced by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and is submitted to the American people without any comment, for no comment is necessary. (The article here referred to is made a part of the record as follows:)

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A mob, composed of more than 1,000 residents of Union and Lee counties, overpowered Sheriff Roberts of Union and Sheriff Reese Lee, took the negro, tied him to an improvised stake and burned him.

## ANOTHER LYNCHED

(By J. L. Roulhae)

"Have mercy, I didn't do it. I didn't do it," he shouted again.

"You should have thought of this before," some one shouted from the crowd. There was an instant of silence. Then several voices rose in agree-

26

ment. Nowhere was there a sign of mercy among the members of the mob. nor did they seem to regret the horrible thing they had done. The negro had supposedly sinned against his race, and he died a death of torture.

"Let's finish it up," someone said.

The crowd walked slowly away.

"I'm hungry," some one complained. "Let's get something to eat."

"I'm hungry, too," said another.

"We'll have to go to New Albany," some one said. "We've bought out all the food in the Rocky Ford stores."

"We might go to Myrtle," said another.

## FORGET NEGRO

He was taken to Tupelo for safekeeping. Rocky Ford citizens went into court and obtained a writ forcing the sheriff to return the negro to New Albany for identification. In a New Albany hospital the girl was asked to like the one who had attacked her.

Then the officers started to take him out of town. Crowds filled the streets. The officers started out the Myrtle road. The mob jumped in their cars and The officers' car sped on. Just outside the city limits of Myrtle the officers rounded them. Several pistols were drawn, but no shots were fired. The car van of cars started toward Rocky Ford.

## NEGRO CONFESSES

At Rocky Ford they took the negro to a deserted barn, where he was asked to confess. He refused. He was beaten, suspended from a rafter by the neck, and mutilated with fire and knives, but he still maintained his innocence.

Satisfied of his guilt, the mob took him to the sawmill. While men were driving the iron post in the ground to which they were to chain the negro, he was taken to the top of the sawdust pile.

TO PREVENT AND PUNISH THE CRIME OF LYNCHING 27

"Governor Whitfield won't have a lick of luck with any investigation of the burning of Jim Ivy."

"And furthermore," he continued, "not an officer in Union County or any of the neighbor counties will point out any member of the crowd. Why, if he did, the best thing for him to do would be to jump into an airplane headed for Germany—quick."

"Sure, the officers know who were there. Everybody down there knows everybody else. We're all neighbors and neighbors' neighbors."

"I've known Sheriff Johnny Roberts since he was knee high to a duck, and I was one of the delegation that called on him Friday night and told him we were tired of him dilly-dallying and that he'd have to produce that negro or take the consequences."

Mr. Bradshaw, who said he was not present at the burning of Ivy Sunday morning at Rocky Ford, "but would have been if I could have gotten there," declared the negro was positively identified as the girl's assailant and twice confessed to the crime.

"When the girl was carried to her home after the attack in the pea field, she told her parents 'Jim Ivy did it,'" Mr. Bradshaw declared. "Then, when Sheriff Roberts went and got him, he confessed to the sheriff, and when he was taken before the girl at the hospital, she identified him after one glance, and then turned her head away. He confessed, too, to the crowd of 600 people 5 minutes before he was burned."

Sheriff Roberts tried to "double cross" the mob and save the negro, Mr. Bradshaw said, and it was during the chase that followed that gunplay really threatened for the only time during the two days.

"Saturday night there were at least 10,000 men with pistols on their hips in New Albany, the county seat," Mr. Bradshaw said, "but it was a perfectly orderly crowd. Everybody was in their shirt sleeves, and no one tried to conceal his identity."

"Then United States Senator Hubert D. Stephens got up and tried to talk the crowd into dispersing and going home, and he was booed down. The boys didn't like for him to butt in. 'Go on home yourself. When we want your advice we'll ask for it,' they told him."

"Then a delegation of us went to Johnny (the sheriff), and told him we were tired of fooling around, and that he had to produce Ivy or take the consequences. He said, 'Well, boys, I'll bring the negro to the hospital at 9 o'clock in the morning for the girl to identify him, and then I'll put him in the county jail here. If you let me get him in jail and locked up, and then over- power me and get him, I can't help it.'"

"A man who works near the bridge telephoned ahead to Myrtle that they were coming, and two cars from that city came out to meet them and the road quickly, they'd shoot their way through, and they would have. So the deputies opened the road and let them by and the crowd caught up with Johnny and Reece and took the negro. They went to the scene of the crime and burned him after he'd confessed again."

"But investigation? Shucks, there won't be any—or if there is, it won't amount to anything. No officer down there is going to dare to try to identify anyone, because nobody's mad about it. Even one of the judges down there said he 'didn't believe in mob law except in a few cases, and this was one of them,' and that 'he'd have gone to the burning if it hadn't been bad policy.' They'd be plenty mad, though, if anyone were arrested, and there'd be a million dollars ready in five minutes to go his bond."

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Senator KING. That would not be any more artocious than where those white men, miners, were butchered out in Illinois, at Herrin, would it, if you were making comparisons?

Mr. JOHNSON. I think there is some distinction in that men are arrayed against each other, bodies of men, and whatever happens in connection therewith. Of course, we may find things as atrocious in the World War as anything that has happened in the records of lynchings, but where men are arrayed against each other, and especially in time of peace, both sides citizens of the same country, I think you can find a distinction. For instance, here a mob falls upon a solitary victim and wreaks its vengeance in this terrible manner.

Senator KING. Very well, that privilege will be granted him.

Mr. JOHNSON. In fact, he did submit in a letter to Senator Borah when this subject was up in the Sixty-seventh Congress his idea about many of the constitutional points. That was printed by the Senate committee in the Sixty-seventh Congress. I do not know whether it would be proper to make it a part of the record in this hearing or not, but I should very much like to do it.

Senator KING. If it would be a repetition of the facts he intends to cover in his brief, there could be no necessity for making it a part of this record. But if it is supplemental or in addition to what will be covered in his brief, all right.

Mr. JOHNSON. Just as you say. I can have him go over this if you wish?

Senator KING. If Senator Gillett approves I will say that if Mr. Stockton regards this as supplemental and in addition to his brief we will receive both; but if he feels that his brief will cover the point, there could be no necessity to make it a part of our record.

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Mr. JOHNSON. All right; I will call that to his attention. Now, as to the constitutionality of this bill I will express my ideas merely as a layman. It appears that this bill rests solely upon the clause of section 1 of the fourteenth amendment, which reads:

85065—26—3

36

(See Dale County v. Gunter, 46 Ala. 111; De Kalb v. Smith, 47 Ala. 407; Cantey v. Clarendon County, 101 S. C. 141; Atchinson v. Twine, 9 Kans. 350; Cherryvale v. Hawman, 80 Kans. 170; P., C., C. & St. L. Ry. Co. v. Chicago, 242 Ell. 178, 11 Cy. C. 500, 501.)

Section 7 rests on the Federal authority derived from its treaty power. Obviously, when the United States has accepted toward foreign powers responsibility for the acts or omissions of local State agents, it should be empowered to proceed directly against lynchers, when, as we have shown, the local agents have shown themselves unable or unwilling to do so. This section is constitutional independent of the fourteenth amendment.

We conclude that the constitutionality of this bill to assure to persons within the jurisdiction of every State the equal protection of the laws and to punish the crime of lynching is reasonably certain. While we recognize that Congress is not empowered to pass upon the constitutionality of such a law as is the court of last resort, we feel bound to say, in recommending this bill for passage, that if it were to be held unconstitutional it would appear to our minds that the fourteenth amendment to the Constitution would thereby be divested of its meaning and of its purpose. We are the more confident that the court will find this bill constitutional in view of its very recent pronouncement in the case of Moore v. Dempsey decided February 19, 1923. That was an appeal from an order dismissing a writ of habeas corpus, the ground of the petition for the writ being that the proceedings in the State court of Arkansas (whereby the appellants, five negroes, were convicted of murder), although a trial in form, were only a form, and that the appellants were hurried to conviction under the pressure of a mob without any regard for their rights and without according them due process of law. The court reversed the order and restored the writ of habeas corpus, holding that the district court must determine whether the facts alleged as to the trial being dominated by the mob were true. The court says, per Holmes, J.:

"In Frank v. Mangum (237 U. S. 309, 335) it was recognized, of course, that if in fact a trial is dominated by a mob so that there is an actual interference with the course of justice, there is a departure from due process of law; and that 'if the State, supplying no corrective process, carries into execution a judgment of death or imprisonment based upon a verdict thus produced by mob domination, the State deprives the accused of his life or liberty without due process of law.' We assume in accordance with that case that the cor- habeas corpus ought not to be allowed. It certainly is true that mere mis- if the case is that the whole proceeding is a mask—that counsel, jury, and judge were swept to the fatal end by an irresistible wave of public passion, and that the State courts failed to correct the wrong, neither perfection in the machinery for correction nor the possibility that the trial court and counsel saw no other way of avoiding an immediate outbreak of the mob can prevent this court from securing to the petitioners their constitutional rights."

The implications of this decision are of significance in connection with such legislation as is proposed herewith, because in such a case the United States Supreme Court examines into the State court trial, and, regardless of the approval of that trial by the State court of appeal, determines for itself whether or not the proceedings were dominated by the mob, so as not to consti- tute due process of law. Upon so finding, the Federal court will take action directly with regard to the individuals involved so as to make good to them shall not deprive them of life or liberty without due process of law.

In analogous fashion the present bill will, we confidently believe, be upheld as appropriate legislation to make good the guaranty of the fourteenth amend- ment to those who suffer from the unequal administration of the State laws, which now fall to protect them from the lynching mobs. Such an appeal to this legislative body, which represents all the people of this country and which denied the equal protection of the laws of the States, must not fall on deaf ears.

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Hon. WILLIAM B. MCKINLEY,

Certain criticisms of the form of the bill which was presented to the Sixty-eighth Congress made by the minority of the House Judiciary Committee in their Report No. 71 of the Sixty-eighth Congress, first session, and in such debate upon the bill as was made on the floor of the Senate in November and December, 1922, as well as certain defects which appear on a close reading of the text of the bill as presented to the Sixty-eighth Congress, merits contained in these objections and criticisms. The principal changes are as follows:

"First. The former bill, H. R. 1 in the Sixty-eighth Congress, was so worded as to cover only the acts of mobs depriving any person of this life, and the succeeding sections contain language appropriate to this limited pur- view. Everybody knows that a great deal of the terrorism exercised in various parts of the country by mobs, such as the whitecapping activities in the South, fall short of murder, but may none the less have most serious conse- quences to the individuals mobbed. There have therefore been inserted throughout the bill in addition to the words 'for the purpose of depriving any person of his life' the words 'or doing him physical injury.' Second, a serious criticism was made by the minority of the committee in Report No. 71 and by certain Senators during discussion in the Senate on the provison of the law that the mob or riotous assemblage is only subject to provisions of the bill when its acts are intended or done as a punishment for or to prevent the commission of some actual or supposed public offense. In response to this constructive criticism these words have been eliminated in various minor particulars. Furthermore, the bill now before this committee has been im- proved over the bill which came before the Sixty-eighth Congress.

"HERBERT K. STOCKTON,

"Member Legal Committee,

## STATEMENT OF REV. J. H. BRANHAM, ASSISTANT PASTOR OF OLIVET BAPTIST CHURCH, CHICAGO, ILL.

38

Now, gentlemen of the committee, to be brief and just to sum
it all up in a nutshell, this is a matter that should claim the attention
of the American people to the extent that we should not permit any-
thing in the way of a breaking down of the law, the taking of the
law in hand by some individual or mob. We have elected to office
men who are sworn to carry out the law, and we as American
people should not permit these things to happen, that would take
away from those who are duly elected the right and duty to execute
the laws, and permit that power and authority to go over into the
hands of those who are not so elected and responsible.

39

MR. NEILL. I represent the National Equal Rights League, as recording secretary. I wish to simply briefly refer to what I consider the strongest influence that should cause the action which is now proposed against lynching, and that is the public sentiment of the South itself has so changed that lynching has become even in the South a thing that is despised and hated.

40

Mr. NEILL. Yes, sir; I think our laws are but an expression of public sentiment.

Mr. NEILL. I was saying that it has been demonstrated lynching can be prevented and was about to state an instance recently in Louisville, Ky., where the militia was called out by the governor to protect the accused during his trial. There was present a mob of something like five thousand people about the court house, and yet, under that protection which any person, white or black, should have, if need be, no attempt at lynching was made. My point is that although in States like Kentucky there might be no need for any antilyching bill, yet in many States, like Mississippi, for instance, it has been shown to be needed. In Mississippi a lynching took place and the participants were apprehended and brought to trial, but a jury refused to convict them, although they knew they were guilty. It is in just such cases that Federal legislation should come in, and by proper provision compel a State to protect an accused; wherever there is laxity in the enforcement of the law, or lack of protection of the accused, the Federal Government should step in and accord that protection and save the lives of its citizens.

41

Mr. CLARKE. My name is Thomas H. R. Clarke, and I am a member of the National Equal Rights League.

Mr. CLARKE. The reason I am here to-day, Senators, is because the colored people, especially in the South, are not in a position to protect themselves. If they were in a position to protect themselves we would not be here to-day asking you to enact this bill. And the colored people of the South are not in position to protect themselves because they have been stripped of every civil and political right guaranteed them in the great reconstruction acts. And they have been in that weakened political condition for nearly 50 years.

42

But I have come to speak in the interest of the white women of
the South. We all know what heredity is. We must believe in
to burn colored men, as they have done more than once, when they
become the mothers of children, those children undoubtedly will be
brutalized, and I think it is going to be more and more difficult to
stop lynching, as has been suggested here, because the white mothers
of the South are becoming more and more brutalized by these lynch-
ings in which they themselves participate.

43

Thank you.

Thank you.

Mrs. BUTLER. I am the vice president of the National Political
Study Club, assistant secretary of the local branch of the N. W.
C. P., and a member of the Equal Rights League, secretary of the
women's district federation, and a member of everything that is
for the uplift of the race.

44

Mrs. BUTLER. Well, our papers say that they are so often that it impresses one's heart as if it is almost every day, the sadness and the horror of it is so great.

Thank you.

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