Lynching In The South (1895)

l4s LYNCHTNG tN THE SOUTH (1895)
145

Lynching In The South (1895)
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Lynching in the South (1895)
Starting in the late 7880s, race dations in the South changed quickty. Southern states disenfranchised African-American uoters and passed Jim crow laws, which legaily seg- regated the nces.This “color line” was often enforced through intimidation ani uiolenie. ‘lfrican Ameicans who transgressed the community stanilards for race relations, per- haps brcaking some race etiquette or Jim crow law, were sometimes lynched as a pow- eful message to the blacle community. Many lynchings were public rituals where the uictim was hanged or burned aliue by mobs. In the 1890s, when one blaek. person was lynched nearly euery two ilays, some African Americans began to ,o*poign against these heinous murders. one of the leaders of the antilynching campaigi ias Ida B. wells-Barnett of Memphk,Tbnnessee. Born into a slaue family, she came io o*n and edit a weekly napspaper, tfte Memphis Free Speech and Headlight. She condemned lyrch- ings in her paper until threats of violence forced her to flee to the North. she eontinued the antilynching ousade, publishing editorials and conducting a lengthy speaking tour in Europe.Thefollowing selation isfomwells-Barnett powaful pamphlet,ARed Record.
Ques t i ons t o Cons ide r
1. According towells-Barnett, what were the reasons for rynching in the South?
2. Why had the reasons changed over time?
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332 CHAPTER 19 HOW THE OTHER HALF LIVES
3. In what ways does’Wells-Barnett propose to end lynching?
4. What does this document reveal about the status ofAfrican Americans and white attitudes in this time period?
Not all nor nearly all of the murders done by white men, during the past thirty years in the South, have come to light, but the statistics as gathered and pre- served by white men, and which have not been questioned, show that during these years more than ten thousand Negroes have been killed in cold blood, without the formality ofjudicial trial and legal execution. . . .
The 6rst excuse given to the civilized world for the murder of unoffending Negroes was the necessiry of the white man to repress and stamp out alleged “race riots.” For years immediately succeeding the war there was an appalling slaughter of colored people, and the wires usually conveyed to northern peo- ple and the world the intelligence, first, that an insurrection was being planned by Negroes, which, a few hours later, would prove to have been vigorously resisted by white men, and controlled with a resulting loss of several killed and wounded. It was always a remarkable feature in these insurrections and riots that only Negroes were kiiled during the rioting, and that all the white men escaped unharmed. . . .
Then came the second excuse, which had its birth during the turbulent times of reconstruction. By an amendment to the Constitution the Negro was given the right of franchise, and, theoretically at least, his ballot became his invaluable emblem of citizenship. In a government “of the people, for the people, and by the people,” the Negro’s vote became an important factor in all matters of state and national politics. But this did not last long.The south- ern white man would not consider that the Negro had any right which a white man was bound to respect, and the idea of a republican form of gov- errunent in the southern states grew into general contempt. It was maintained that “This is a white man’s government,” and regardless of numbers the white man should rule. “No Negro domination” became the new legend on the sanguinary banner of the sunny South, and under it rode the Ku Klux Klan, the Regulators, and the lawless mobs, which for any cause chose to murder one nran or a dozen as suited their purpose best. . . .
The white man’s victory soon became complete by fraud, violence, intim- idation and murder. The franchise vouchsafed to the Negro grew to be a “barren idealiry” and regardless of numbers, the colored people found them- selves voiceless in the councils of those whose duty it was to rule. With no longer the fear of “Negro Domination” before their eyes, the white mant second excuse became valueless. With the Southern governments all sub- verted and the Negro actually eliminated from all participation in state and national elections, there could be no longer an excuse for killing Negroes to prevent “Negro Domination.’
Brutality still continued; Negroes were whipped, scourged, exiled, shot and hung whenever and wherever it pleased the white man so to treat them, and as the civilized world with increasing persistenry held the white people
Ida B.Wells-Bunert, A Red Record (Chicago, 1895),8-15.
145 LYNCHING IN THE SOUTH (1895)
of the South to account for its oudawry the murderers invented the third excuse–that Negroes had to be killed to avenge their assaults upon women. There could be framed no possible excuse more harmful to the Negro and more unanswerable if true in its sufficiency for the white man. . . .
A word as to the cfrarge itself. In considering the third reason assigned by the Southern white people for the butchery of blacks, the question must be asked, what the white rniul means when he charges the black man with rape. Does he mean the crime which the statutes of the civfized states describe as such? Not by’any means. With the Southern white man, any mesalliance existing between a white woman and a colored man is a suftcient founda- tion for the charge of rape.The Southern white man says that it is impossible for a voluntary alliance to exist berween a white woman and a colored man, and therefore, the fact of an alliance is a proof of force. In numerous instances where colored men have been lynched on the charge of rape, it was posi- tively known at the time of lynching, and indisputably proven after the vic- timt death, that the relationship sustained between the man and woman was voluntary and clandestine, and that in no court oflaw could even the charge of assault have been successfully maintained. . . .
During all the years of slavery no such charge was ever made, not even during the dark days of the rebellion, when the white man, following the fortunes of war went to do battle for the maintenance of slavery. While the master was away fighting to forge the fetters upon the slave, he left his wife and children with no protectors save the Negroes themselves. And yet during those years of trust and peril, no Negro proved recreant to his trust and no white man returned to a home that had been dispoiled.
Likewise during the period of alleged “insurrection,” and alarming”race riots,” it never occurred to the white man, that his wife and children were in danger of assault. Nor in the Reconstruction era, when the hue and cry was against “Negro Domination,” was there ever a thought that the domination would ever contaminate a fireside or strike to death the virtue of womanhood. It must appear strange indeed, to every thoughtful and candid man, that more than a quarter of a century elapsed before the Negro began to show signs of such infamous degeneration. . . .
It is his regret, that, in his own defense, he must disclose to the world that degree of dehumanizing brutality which fixes upon America the blot of a national crime. Whatever faults and failings other nations may have in their dealings with their own subjects or with other people, no other civilized nation stands condemned before the world with a series of crimes so pecu- liarly national. It becomes a painful dury of the Negro to reproduce a record which shows that a large portion of the American people avow anarchy, con- done murder and defr the contempt of civilization.
These pages are written in no spirit of vindictiveness,for all who give the subject consideration must concede that far too serious is the condition of that civilized government in which the spirit of unrestrained oudawry constantly increases in violence, and casts its blight over a continually growing area of territory. We plead not for the colored people alone, but for all victims of the terrible injustice which puts men and women to death without form of law.
334 CHAPTER 19 HOWTHE OTHER HALF LIVES
During the year 1894, there were 732 persons execured in the United States by due form of law, while in the same yea4 r97 persons were pur to death by mobs who gave the victims no opportunity to make a lawful defense. No conunent need be made upon a condition of public sentiment responsible for such alarming results. . . .
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“The Negro Question in the South ” (1892)
The People party (Populkt) faced the problem of all new political organizations: con- uincing uoters to abandon the traditional political parties and join their cause. In the south, this task was especially dfficult because race relations had to be considered.The Demonatic party had establkhed white solidarity in the state gouernffients as the Rad- ical Reconstruction gouernments collapsed, while the Republican party, comprising mostly African Amerieans and some dkafected whites, was dkintegrating. some poputists sought the Afriean-American uote to reftroue the Demouats from ofice and establish a new political powet in the south. Among the more feruent supporterc of this approach was Tom Watson of Georgia. Known for his combatiue nature and charismatie speeches, watson serued one term in congress before joining the Populkt party. In 1892, he explained the reasons for ueating a fusion party of black and white uoters in the South to readers of the national magazine, Arena. watson’s article is excerptedfollowing.
Ques t i ons t o Cons ide r
1. According to TomWatson, what will be the foundation of the proposed fusion party?
2. In what ways will the People’s Party address the race issue? 3.
‘what does this document porray about econornic conditions and race
relations in the South?
4. For what reasons would some whites and blacks oppose this proposal?
The Negro Question in the South has been for nearly thirry years a source of danger, discord, and bloodshed. It is an ever-present irritant and menace. . . . Now consider: here were two distinct races dwelling together, with political equaliry established between them by law. They lived in the same secrion; won their livelihood by the same pursuits; cultivated adjoining fields on the same terrru; enjoyed together the bounties of’a generous climate; suffered together the rigors of cruelly unjust laws; spoke the same language; bought and sold in the same markecs; classified themselves into churches under the same denominational teachings; neither race antagonizing the other in any
Thom E.Wason,”The Ncgm Question in the South,”;{rera 6 (Octobcr 1892): 540-550.