The Dread Judge Lynch

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 49, 26 August 1933, Page 18

The Dread Judge Lynch

In recent years considerable attention has been directed in the United States to the subject of lynching, in the hope of stamping out this barbarous system of mob law; but so far the ideal of a "lynchless year" has not been attained (says the Melbourne "Age"). Butj last year there were only seven victims of Judge Lynch—the lowest total during the past fifty years, and a commendable reduction from the maximum] of 255 victims in the year 1892. "The Tragedy of Lynching," by Arthur f. | Raper., an English edition of a book published by the University of North Carolina Press, is the latest contribution to the study of lynching in the United States. It is the outcome of the report of the Southern Commission on the Study of Lynching, which investigated the subject in 1931. This American Commission, which consisted of eleven members, included university presidents and professors, and two editors of newspapers. Five of the eleven members were coloured men holding important positions in edu-cational establishments for negroes. The Commission, in its report, which dealt mainly with the twenty-ono cases of lynching in 1930, stated: —"Two of the Victims are known to have been innocent. They were not even accused of crime. One was lynched solely because he had offended political opponents, and another to prevent his appearance as a witness in a serious Court case against a white man. In five other cases it was not clear that the mob got the guilty persons, and in six more there was doubt as to the truth of tho charges against tho men lynched. In only eight of the twenty-ono cases did there seem to be no doubt whatever as to the guilt or identity of the victims of the lynchers. The popular opinion that most lynching are for tho punishment of crimes against women was found to be wrong, for of 3693 person's lynched during the forty-one years ended with 1929, only 23 per cent, were accused of actual or attempted crimes against women, Tho Commission declared that those people who apologise for lynching as a necessary defence of womanhood "in reality doubly betray the Southern woman, first in making her danger greater by exaggerating her helplessness, and second by undermining the authority of tho police and Courts which are her legitimate protectors." The Commission made plans for the study of each of the twenty-one cases of lynching in 1930, and Dr. Arthur Raper was appointed to direct these in-

vestigations. It was arranged that a white man and a negro should jointly investigate the circumstances of each case. Dr. Raper's book, "Tho Tragedy of Lynching," embodies the results of these investigations. Among the offences for which offenders were lynched, according to Dr. .Raper, wore seeking employment in a restaurant, bringing "a suit against white men, "jumping" a labour contract, expressing sympathy with a lynched negro, refusal to pay a debt, boastful remarks, and disrespectr ful utterances against the late President Woodrow Wilson. One of the most remarkable cases was a lynching in Texas on May 9, 1930. A negro accused of assaulting a woman was being tried by the ordinary legal tribunal at the town of Sherman, when a mob surged into court house. Although a body of Texas Rangers had been brought into Court to prevent disturbance, • tho commotion caused by tho mob was so great that tho Judge conferred with the Court officials to consider the desirableness of postponing the trial and . seeking a change of venue. Meanwhile some of the mob set fire to the building. The guardians of tho law offered the accused negro the choice of escaping the mob by ileetnoss of foot, or staying in the clerk's vault, where he might or might not be roasted by the fire. He chose the vault. The mob thwarted the efforts of the fire brigade to save the building, which was soon gutted. The vault was then blown ope^ with dynamite, and the negro was killed by the explosion. His body was dragged through the streets, hanged on a cotton-wood tree, and burned. The mob then burned down the houses of several negro residents of the town who were in no way connected with, the oasc. The leaders of lynching mobs are seldom proceeded against by the sheriffs, although in most cases there would be no difficulty in identifying them. The sheriffs are reluctant to run counter to public opinion in the district by arresting any of those responsible for the deaths of the victims of Judge Lynch. If they did arrest any of the perpetrators of these outrages, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to get a conviction, no matter how overwhelming the evidence of guilt. In some cases the lynchings have been deliberately organised ceremonies, to which the public have been invited; but it is the exception for a Coroner's Court to return any other verdict on tho victims of lynching than that they came to their deaths "at the hands of parties unknown."