What is the remedy? Respect for the law of course, with proper
enforcement of the same. All too frequently, however, the law is
simply a subterfuge behind which officials take refuge; and this is a
condition that applies to many things in our American life besides
lynching. Asked a Georgia judge, however, in despair at the conditions
that surrounded him: "If the grand jury won't indict lynchers, if the
petit juries won't convict, and if soldiers won't shoot, what are we
coming to?"
How this all works out from the stand-point of the Negro may be seen
from the following. After the burning of M'Ilheron at Estill Springs
the Secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People sent a telegram to the President of the United States
asking him to denounce such acts as disgraced the country at the very
moment that we were fighting for justice and humanity abroad. The
telegram was referred to the Attorney General, and the reply from his
department was to the effect that "under the decisions of the Supreme
Court of the United States, the Federal Government has absolutely no
jurisdiction over matters of this kind; nor are they connected with
the war in any such way as to justify the action of the Federal
Government under the war power." The Association then appealed to
Governor Rye of Tennessee to take action to bring to justice the
perpetrators of the wrong against the honor of the state. The Governor
replied in part as follows: "I could not anticipate that local
officers, whose duty it is to take custody of prisoners would fail to
accord protection, nor could any action upon my part be taken without
being requested so to do by the local authorities or court officers."
The Nashville _Banner_, however, printed an editorial, and the Chamber
of Commerce in Chattanooga passed some resolutions, and at last
accounts this was about all that had been done. The Negro citizen
accordingly wonders about his general position when neither the
Federal nor the State Government seems to have the power to protect
him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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