The Truth About Lynching and the Negro in the South / In Which the Author Pleads That the South Be Made Safe for the White Race

by Winfield H. Collins

guards by a crowd of men last night and shot to death. . . . The five victims make nine Negroes that have been killed within the past week in the vicinity of St. Charles. . . .

“A few days ago a difficulty occurred over a trivial matter at St. Charles between a white man by the name of Searcy and two Negroes by the names of Henry and Walker Griffin. One of the Negroes threatened to knock Searcy in the head with a beer bottle. The trouble was stopped for the time being, but on Monday last the two Negroes met Searcy and his brother in the store of Woolfords and Marsworthy in St. Charles, and the difficulty was renewed. One of the Negroes without warning, struck both of the Searcy boys over the head with a table leg, rendering them unconscious and fracturing their skulls, one of them to such an extent that he may die. The Deputy Sheriff, . . . James Kirkpatrick, attempted to arrest the Negroes and he, too, was knocked down.

“The Negroes then gathered and defied the officers, declaring that ‘No white man could arrest them.’ Their demonstrations aroused the fear of the citizens of St. Charles and they phoned to this place for a posse to come out and protect the town. P. A. Douglass, deputy sheriff, went out with five men, Wednesday morning. Constable

L. C. Neely went forward with a posse of several men to capture the Griffin Negroes. The constable met three Negroes . . . in the road. He inquired of them if they knew where the Griffins were and one of them replied that they did, but ‘would tell no —— white ——’ the Negroes then attempted to draw their pistols, but the posse fired, killing all three of them.

“Yesterday sixteen men left this place for the scene of the trouble. . . . Large crowds in from Roc, Ethel, and Clarenden. During the day while the Sheriff’s posse was searching for the Griffin Negroes, they were fired upon by a Negro . . . from ambush. Three of the posse were hit, but the shot used were small, and no serious damage resulted. The posse returned the fire, and a shot . . . felled the Negro to the ground. Several other shots were fired into him, killing him instantly.

“Five other Negroes . . . who were the Negroes that had defied the officers, were arrested, and last night a crowd of men took them away from the guards and shot them to death.” The next issue of the same paper stated that two more Negroes had been killed, and the Daily Arkansas Democrat, March 29, reported that the Griffins who were the cause of the original trouble had been killed, completing the list of thirteen.

The above quotation is given merely as an example of a state of affairs so apt to exist in connection with what usually passes as trivial causes for lynching. May those at a distance from such conditions the better understand!

Thus far I have not discussed lynching in the North, nor do I purpose to do so; but a few words in passing seem pertinent. There is no basis for the assumption, which some seem innocently to hold, that the people of the North are inherently good and law-abiding, while those of the South are inherently wicked and lawless. Indeed, statistics would seem to indicate the opposite.[69:15] In 1910 over 750 persons to the 100,000 population were committed to prison in New England as against less than 450 in the South. I take it that the people of the North are neither better nor worse than those of the South. The same conditions in either section would produce about the same results. The statistics of lynching I gathered for the North were merely incidental. However, for 1901 and 1902, I find that nine Negroes were lynched in the North, four for murder and five for rape.

Further evidence that the people of the North will engage in lynching when necessity dictates may be had from the early history of California.

Vigilance committees for the protection of the better class of citizens against the disorderly and criminal elements, were organized without warrant of law. In writing of one of these committees H. H. Bancroft says that it was well represented by men of wealth, intelligence and industry, and that “the largest element comprised men from the Northeastern part of the United States.”[70:16]