Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases — John Shaqi
Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its PhasesWells-Barnett, Ida B.
History
Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases
Wells-Barnett, Ida B.
Lynching
Public sentiment has had a slight "reaction" though not sufficient to stop
the crusade of lawlessness and lynching. The spirit of christianity of the
great M.E. Church was aroused to the frequent and revolting crimes against
a weak people, enough to pass strong condemnatory resolutions at its
General Conference in Omaha last May. The spirit of justice of the grand
old party asserted itself sufficiently to secure a denunciation of the
wrongs, and a feeble declaration of the belief in human rights in the
Republican platform at Minneapolis, June 7. Some of the great dailies and
weeklies have swung into line declaring that lynch law must go. The
President of the United States issued a proclamation that it be not
tolerated in the territories over which he has jurisdiction. Governor
Northern and Chief Justice Bleckley of Georgia have proclaimed against it.
The citizens of Chattanooga, Tenn., have set a worthy example in that they
not only condemn lynch law, but her public men demanded a trial for Weems,
the accused rapist, and guarded him while the trial was in progress. The
trial only lasted ten minutes, and Weems chose to plead guilty and accept
twenty-one years sentence, than invite the certain death which awaited him
outside that cordon of police if he had told the truth and shown the
letters he had from the white woman in the case.
Col. A.S. Colyar, of Nashville, Tenn., is so overcome with the horrible
state of affairs that he addressed the following earnest letter to the
_Nashville American_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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