The Red Record: Tabulated Statistics and Alleged Causes of Lynching in the United StatesWells-Barnett, Ida B.
History
The Red Record: Tabulated Statistics and Alleged Causes of Lynching in the United States
Wells-Barnett, Ida B.
African Americans -- History -- 1877-1964; Lynching -- United States; Lynching -- United States -- Statistics
Therefore, we demand a fair trial by law for those accused of crime, and
punishment by law after honest conviction. No maudlin sympathy for
criminals is solicited, but we do ask that the law shall punish all alike.
We earnestly desire those that control the forces which make public
sentiment to join with us in the demand. Surely the humanitarian spirit of
this country which reaches out to denounce the treatment of the Russian
Jews, the Armenian Christians, the laboring poor of Europe, the Siberian
exiles and the native women of India--will not longer refuse to lift its
voice on this subject. If it were known that the cannibals or the savage
Indians had burned three human beings alive in the past two years, the
whole of Christendom would be roused, to devise ways and means to put a
stop to it. Can you remain silent and inactive when such things are done
in our own community and country? Is your duty to humanity in the United
States less binding?
What can you do, reader, to prevent lynching, to thwart anarchy and
promote law and order throughout our land?
1st. You can help disseminate the facts contained in this book by bringing
them to the knowledge of every one with whom you come in contact, to the
end that public sentiment may be revolutionized. Let the facts speak for
themselves, with you as a medium.
2d. You can be instrumental in having churches, missionary societies,
Y.M.C.A.'s, W.C.T.U.'s and all Christian and moral forces in connection
with your religious and social life, pass resolutions of condemnation and
protest every time a lynching takes place; and see that they axe sent to
the place where these outrages occur.
3d. Bring to the intelligent consideration of Southern people the refusal
of capital to invest where lawlessness and mob violence hold sway. Many
labor organizations have declared by resolution that they would avoid
lynch infested localities as they would the pestilence when seeking new
homes. If the South wishes to build up its waste places quickly, there is
no better way than to uphold the majesty of the law by enforcing obedience
to the same, and meting out the same punishment to all classes of
criminals, white as well as black. "Equality before the law," must become
a fact as well as a theory before America is truly the "land of the free
and the home of the brave."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account