The Journal of Negro History, Volume 6, 1921Various
History
The Journal of Negro History, Volume 6, 1921
Various
African Americans -- Periodicals
In 1895 a Negro in Texas was killed by a mob because he was accused of
riding over a little white girl and seriously injuring her. "Later
developments proved that the mob murdered the wrong negro." In 1899 in
Louisiana "an attempt had been made to assault a white woman."
Afterwards one Michael Curry saw a large Negro wandering in a field.
For no reason whatever he decided that that man had been the
assailant. Some white would-be murderers were quickly got together and
shot the black man to death. Then it was discovered that he was an
escaped lunatic, whose recent history did not square with the theory
that he was the assailant.
In Georgia there was in 1911 a Negro woman described as "a good
reliable servant" in her normal condition, but who was subject to
attacks of violent mania. She killed a white woman in such an attack,
as many years ago poor English Mary Lamb killed her own mother. The
world knows with what chivalry her brother Charles shielded her
through life. This Negro native of Georgia had once been adjudged to
be a fit subject for an insane asylum; but the State institution was
crowded and she was not then or now taken into it. Georgia took care
of her in an easier way. Its lynchers put her into an automobile and
placed a rope around her neck, fastened it to a tree, and started the
car from under her, and left her to die. No arrests followed. But why
mention that fact in this case? There are very few instances of mob
murder when white murderers have ever been arrested.
In Oklahoma in 1914, two white men assaulted a seventeen-year-old girl
of color. Her screams brought her brother to the rescue. There was a
fight. He killed one of the men. The next day a mob came to the house
in search of the brother. They could not find him so they killed the
girl. In 1915 a sheriff in Georgia was murdered, and straightway five
Negroes were killed. About a year later it was learned that all five
were innocent. Sometimes "race prejudice" is given as the reason why
certain Negroes were lynched. That probably means that in no such
instance had the lynched Negro committed any offence, or at most none
deserving the death penalty by any legal process.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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