Few sensible men in the South have now a word to say for lynching.[[8]] It has proved itself as ineffectual in practice as it is unjustifiable in theory. |Lynch Law.| It cannot even be palliated as an ungovernable reaction of horror at the particular atrocity here in question; seeing that, as a matter of fact, more negroes are lynched for mere murder than for outrages on women.[[9]] There seems to be little hope, however, of a cessation of lynchings in the near future. The Southern Press abounds with evidences that the lynching impulse is strong, and is with difficulty held in check[[10]] even when the provocation is comparatively trifling.
One thing seems to me certain—namely, that crimes against women, and all sorts of negro crime, will be far more effectually checked when respectable and well-disposed negroes can feel reasonably confident that people of their race will be treated with common fairness in white courts of law. At present it is certain that they can feel no such confidence. But, in making this statement, I am anticipating matters. The point is one to which I must return later.
[4]. In a paper read in 1901, Mr. A. H. Stone said of the Yazoo Mississippi Delta: “There is now no more feeling of fear on the white man’s part, whether for himself or his wife or his children, than in the days of slavery.” But he afterwards added: “Writing to-day, 1908, it would be necessary to modify this statement somewhat—certainly for some part of this territory.” “The American Race Problem,” p. 91. The footnotes to Mr. Stone’s paper point out one or two other instances of a deterioration of conditions.
[5]. Among the “Causes Assigned” for lynchings in the statistical statement prepared by the Chicago Tribune, “Race Prejudice” stands fourth on the list; and in the four years, 1900-1903, twenty-four cases are assigned to it. Among the other causes are “Unknown offences” (10), “Mistaken Identity” (5), and “No offence” (1).
[6]. “Making allowance for all exaggerations in attributing this crime to negroes, there still remain enough well-authenticated cases of brutal assault on women by black men in America to make every negro bow his head in shame.”—Atlanta University Publications, No. IX. (A negro monograph).
[7]. “No race ever behaved better than the negro behaved during the war. Not only were there no massacres and no outbreaks, but even the amount of defection was not large.... Many a master going off to the war entrusted his wife and children to the care of his servants with as much confidence as if they had been of his own blood. They acted rather like clansmen than like bondmen.... As Henry Grady once said, ‘A thousand torches would have disbanded the Southern army; but there was not one.’”—Thomas Nelson Page: “The Negro: The Southerner’s Problem,” p. 21.
[8]. One of the most sensible men in the South is certainly Mr. E. G. Murphy, who writes (“The Present South,” p. 177): “The mob, so far as it has a conscious philosophy, has attempted the justification of its course upon these grounds: It has insisted that its methods were necessary in order to prevent the crime; in order to avoid the procrastination of the courts; and in order to protect the victim of assault from the ordeal of presenting testimony at the trial of the offender. It has become increasingly obvious, however, that the practice of lynching ... is not a remedy. It does not prevent crime. Through the morbid interest which it arouses, and through the publicity which it creates, it inflames to the utmost the power of criminal suggestion and aggravates all the conditions of racial suspicion and antagonism. The so-called ‘remedy’ has always been followed by new outbreaks of the disease, the most atrocious crimes coming at short intervals after the previous exercise of the mob’s philosophy of ‘prevention.’” “Lynching as a remedy,” says Mr. Thomas Nelson Page, “is a ghastly failure.” The opposite opinion, however, has still its champions. “The lynch lightning,” says Mr. W. B. Smith (an anti-negro extremist), “seldom strikes twice in the same district or community.” “The Colour-Line,” p. 259.
[9]. The commonly accepted statistics of lynchings are those supplied by the Chicago Tribune. I have before me the figures for the years 1885-1904, somewhat vitiated by the fact that the enumeration for 1888 is incomplete. It would appear that in these years 2942 lynchings in all occurred, 2042 of the victims being negroes, and the remaining 900 belonging to other races. But the proportion of negro lynchings steadily increased. In 1886, 71 negroes were lynched, as against 62 men of other races; whereas in 1901 the respective figures were 107 and 28. Out of the whole number of lynchings 25 per cent. were for rape, 42 per cent. for murder, and 33 per cent. for other offences. More than 80 per cent. of the whole number of lynchings occurred in the Southern States.
[10]. Washington, November 15, 1909. “Ninety days’ imprisonment was imposed to-day upon ex-Sheriff Joseph F. Shipp, of Chattanooga, Tenn., by the supreme court of the United States for contempt of court in failing to prevent the lynching of a negro, Edward Johnson, whose execution had been stayed by the court.