Light Ahead for the NegroJohnson, Edward A. (Edward Austin)
Science
Light Ahead for the Negro
Johnson, Edward A. (Edward Austin)
African Americans; United States -- Race relations
Seeing that further resistance was useless and to avoid the killing of
innocent prisoners the authorities consented to the demand of the mob
for the right man. He was dragged from his cell to the jail door and
thence down the stone steps to a court in the jail yard.
Fearing an attempt on the part of the police to rescue him, the leaders
formed a hollow square. Some one knocked the Negro to the ground and
those near to him fell back four or five feet. Nine shots were fired
into his prostrate body, and satisfied that he was dead, a dozen
men grabbed the lifeless body, and with a triumphant cheer the mob
surged into Columbia street and marched to Fountain Avenue, one of the
principal streets of the town. From here they marched south to the
intersection of Main street, and a rope was tied around Dixon’s neck.
Two men climbed the pole and threw the rope over the topmost crosstie
and drew the body about eighteen feet above the street. They then
descended and their work was greeted with a cheer.
The fusillade then began and for thirty minutes the body was kept
swaying back and forth, from the force of the rain of bullets which
was poured into it. Frequently the arms would fly up convulsively
when a muscle was struck, and the mob went fairly wild with delight.
Throughout it all perfect order was maintained and everyone seemed in
the best of humor, joking with his nearest neighbor while re-loading
his revolver.
A NEGRO HONORED.
COLUMBUS, GEORGIA, ERECTS A MONUMENT TO A HEROIC LABORER.
(_By the Associated Press._)
Macon, Ga., March 9, 1902.--A Columbus, Ga., dispatch to the Telegraph
says a marble monument has been erected by the city to the memory of
Bragg Smith, the Negro laborer who lost his life last September in a
heroic but fruitless effort to rescue City Engineer Robert L. Johnson
from a street excavation. On one side is an inscription setting forth
the fact, while on the other side is chiseled,
“Honor and shame from no condition rise;
Act well thy part, there all the honor lies.”
[5] BURNING OF NEGROES.
Birmingham, Ala., Special.--The Age-Herald recently published the
following letter from Booker T. Washington:
“Within the last fortnight three members of my race have been burned at
the stake; of these one was a woman. Not one of the three was charged
with any crime even remotely connected with the abuse of a white woman.
In every case murder was the sole accusation. All of these burnings
took place in broad daylight, and two of them occurred on Sunday
afternoon in sight of a Christian church.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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