The Story of My Life and Work

by Booker T. Washington

While I was in Europe cases of lynching of our people were especially frequent in the South and in order to assist in checking this injustice perpetrated upon the race, I addressed the following letter to the Southern people, which was widely published throughout the country and seemed to do much good. It was heartily commented upon editorially in the Southern press:

“Several times during the last few months, while our country has been shocked because of the lynching of Negro citizens in several states, I was asked by many, and was tempted to say something upon the subject through the press. At the time of these lynchings I kept silent, because I did not believe that the public mind was in a condition to listen to a discussion of the subject in the calm judicial manner that it would be later, when there should be no undue feeling or excitement. In the discussion of this or any other matter, little good is accomplished unless we are perfectly frank. There is no white man of the South who has more sincere love for it than I have, and nothing could tempt me to write or speak that which I did not think was for the permanent good of all the people of the South. Whenever adverse criticism is made upon the South I feel it as keenly as any member of the white race can feel it. It is, therefore, my interest in everything which appertains to the South that prompts me to write as I do now. While it is true that there are cases of lynchings and outrage in the Northern and Western States, candor compels us to admit that by far the most of the cases of lynchings take place in our Southern States, and that most of the persons lynched are Negroes.

“With all the earnestness of my heart, I want to appeal, not to the President of the United States, Mr. McKinley; not to the people of New York nor of the New England States, but to the citizens of our Southern States, to assist in creating a public sentiment such as will make human life here just as safe and sacred as it is anywhere else in the world.

“For a number of years the South has appealed to the North and to Federal authorities, through the public press, from the public platform, and most eloquently through the late Henry W. Grady, to leave the whole matter of the rights and protection of the Negro to the South, declaring that it would see to it that the Negro would be made secure in his citizenship. During the last half dozen years the whole country, from the President down, has been inclined more than ever to pursue this policy, leaving the whole matter of the destiny of the Negro to the Negro himself and to the Southern white people among whom the great bulk of the Negroes live.

“By the present policy of non-interference, on the part of the North and the Federal Government, the South is given a sacred trust. How will she execute this trust? The world is waiting and watching to see. The question must be answered largely by the protection the South gives to the life of the Negro and the provisions that are made for the development of the Negro in the organic laws of the state. I fear that but few people in the South realize to what extent the habit of lynching, or the taking of life without due process of law, has taken hold of us, and to what extent it is hurting us, not only in the eyes of the world, but in our own moral and material growth.

“Lynching was instituted some years ago, with the idea of punishing and checking outrage upon women. Let us examine the cold facts and see where it has already led us, and where it is likely further to carry us, if we do not rid ourselves of the habit. Many good people in the South, and also out of the South, have gotten the idea that lynching is resorted to for one crime only. I have the facts from an authoritative source. During last year 127 persons were lynched in the United States. Of this number, 118 were executed in the South and 9 in the North and West. Of the total number lynched, 102 were Negroes, 23 were whites and 2, Indians. Now, let everyone interested in the South, his country and the cause of humanity, note this fact-that only 24 of the entire number were charged in any way with the crime of rape; that is, 24 out of 127 cases of lynching. Sixty-one of the remaining cases were for murder, 13 being for suspected murder, 6 for theft, etc. During one week last spring, when I kept a careful record, 13 Negroes were lynched in three of our Southern States and not one was even charged with rape. All of these 13 were accused of murder or house-burning, but in neither case were the men allowed to go before a court so that their innocence or guilt might be proven.

“When we get to the point where four-fifths of the people lynched in our country in one year are for some crime other than rape, we can no longer plead and explain that we lynch for one crime alone.

“Let us take another year, that of 1892, for example. During this year (1892) 241 persons were lynched in the whole United States, 36 of this number were lynched in Northern and Western States, and 205 in our Southern States. Of the 241 lynched in the whole country, 160 were Negroes and five of these were women. The facts show that out of the 241 lynched in the entire country in 1892, but 57 were even charged with rape, even attempted rape, leaving in that year alone 184 persons who were lynched for other causes than that of rape.

“If it were necessary, I could produce figures for other years. Within a period of six years about 900 persons have been lynched in our Southern States. This is but a few hundred short of the total number of soldiers who lost their lives in Cuba during the Spanish-American war. If we could realize still more fully how far this unfortunate habit is leading us on, note the classes of crime, during a few months, which the local papers and Associated Press say that lynching has been inflicted for—they include ‘murder,’ ‘rioting,’ ‘incendiarism,’ ‘robbery,’ ‘larceny,’ ‘self-defense,’ ‘insulting women,’ ‘alleged stock poisoning,’ ‘malpractice,’ ‘alleged barn-burning,’ ‘suspected robbery,’ ‘race prejudice,’ ‘attempted murder,’ ‘horse stealing,’ and ‘mistaken identity,’ etc.

“The practice has grown until we are now at the point where not only blacks are lynched in the South, but white men as well. Not only this but within the last six years, at least a half dozen colored women have been lynched. And there are a few cases where Negroes have lynched members of their own race. What is to be the end of this? Besides this, every lynching drives hundreds of Negroes from the farming districts of the South, where their services are of great value to the country, into the already over-crowded cities.