The Lynching Industry (1915)
The Crisis is interested to report that the standard American industry of lynching colored men has flourished during the year 1914. There is, of course, the usual difference of opinion ns to the number of its victims. Tuskegee reluctantly admits 52; the Chicago Tribune notes 54; The Crisis finds 74, of whom 69 were colored and 5 white. Of the 69, four were colored women. The following is a list of the lynchings and those starred are unrecorded in the Chicago Tribune list; with regard to five of these of unknown name there is it bare possibility of duplication or mistake, but this does not seem probable:
COLORED MEN LYNCHED IN 1914
Jan.
Okla.—Dickerson, murder.
N. C.—Wilson, murder.
Fla.—Peck, assault.
Fla.—James, assault.
Tex.—Lee, assault.
Ga.—Harris, murder.
Feb.
Miss.—Petty, murder.
Miss.—Johnson, murder.
March
Mo.—Shields, murder.
Miss.—Unknown, murder.
Ala. Young, rape.
Okla.—Scott, murder
April
Miss.—Turner, assault.
Miss.—Unknown, race riot.
Miss.—Unknown, race riot.
Tex.—Morgan, assault
May
La.—Washington, murder.
Ga.—Jones, theft.
La.—Hamilton, rape.
Fla.—Woodsome, unlawful entry.
June
Miss.—Smith, robbery.
Miss.—Collins, resistance.
July
Miss.—Bailey, theft.
S. C.—Carson, murder.
August
Okla.—Williams, murder.
La.—Griffin, murder.
La.—Hall, murder.
La.—Holmes, murder.
La.—Unknown, murder.
La.—Romeo, murder.
Miss.—Robinson, murder.
Ala.—Unknown, “running amuck.”
Sept.
Ala.—Baines, robbery.
Ga.—Brown, murder.
Oct.
Fla.—Junior, rape.
Miss.—Miller, rape.
Ark.—Davis, murder.
Ala.—Unknown, assault.
Ark.—Unknown, murder.
Ark.—Unknown, murder.
Tex.—Durfee, murder.
Nov.
Miss.—Burns, assault.
Ky.—10 unknown Negroes by night-riders.
Fla.—Evans, rape.
Ky.—Allen, by night-riders.
S. C.—Wilson, murder.
Miss.—Sullivan, arson.
Miss.—Sullivan, arson.
Dec.
La.—McKnight, murder.
La.—T. Lewis, murder.
La.—Dirden, murder.
La.—W. Lewis, murder.
La.—Washington, murder.
La.—Henderson, murder.
Ala.—Jones, unlawful entry.
R. C.—Green, intent to steal.
S. C.—Seymour, rape.
Miss.—Williams, assault.
Total— 69
NUMBER BY MONTHS
Jan. |
6 |
Feb. |
2 |
Mch. |
5 |
Apr. |
4 |
May |
4 |
June |
3 |
July |
2 |
Aug. |
8 |
Sept. |
2 |
Oct. |
7 |
Nov. |
16 |
Dec. |
10 |
NUMBER BY STATE
Miss. |
15 |
La. |
13 |
Ky. |
11 |
Fla. |
5 |
Tex. |
5 |
Ala. |
5 |
S. C. |
4 |
Ark. |
3 |
Okla. |
3 |
Ga. |
3 |
N. C. |
1 |
Mo. |
1 |
NUMBER BY CRIMES
Percentage |
||
|---|---|---|
Murder |
30 |
44 |
By rioters and nightriders |
13 |
19 |
Personal assaults |
10 |
14 |
Rape,attempts to rape and presence in women’s rooms |
8 |
11.5 |
Robbery and theft |
5 |
7 |
Arson |
2 |
3 |
Resistance to search |
1 |
1.5 |
LYNCHED BY YEARS, 1885-1914
|
|
|---|---|
1885 |
78 |
1886 |
71 |
1887 |
80 |
1888 |
95 |
1889 |
95 |
1890 |
90 |
1891 |
121 |
1892 |
155 |
1893 |
154 |
1894 |
134 |
1895 |
112 |
1896 |
80 |
1897 |
122 |
1898 |
102 |
1899 |
84 |
1900 |
107 |
1901 |
107 |
1902 |
86 |
1903 |
86 |
1904 |
83 |
1905 |
61 |
1906 |
64 |
1907 |
60 |
1908 |
93 |
1909 |
73 |
1910 |
65 |
1911 |
63 |
1912 |
63 |
1913 |
79 |
1914 |
69 |
Total— 2,732
These lynchings produce the usual little pleasantries with which the American nation is so familiar. Murder, for instance, sounds very awful and yet we must remember that one of those lynched for murder was killed in defence of a colored woman’s honor. In another case a marshal had already shot a man whom he was about to arrest. The man then killed him and was promptly lynched. In two Florida cases proof that the lynched men were innocent came after they were dead. Blood hounds and posses have been responsible for desperate resistance on the part of men afterward lynched, and in one case the man who had been respited on account of doubt of his gruilt was promptly killed by the mob.
The so-called assaults were to a considerable extent fights where the white man was worsted. One constable received a flesh wound and his assailant was lynched, whereupon the constable promptly recovered. Another white man suffered the indignity of being struck by a hoe, and still another of having his chin bitten off. The assailants in both cases were killed with great enthusiasm.
Attacks on property are most irritating, and one boy who stole a pair of shoes suffered the same fate as a man who stole a couple of mules. Mules are quite valuable in Mississippi. In the very recent lynchings in Louisiana it would seem that the search for a missing $500 was the chief motive. The burning of a barn in Mississippi resulted in two lynchings.
The chivalry of southern white manhood toward colored women has been particularly conspicuous this season. Two men raped a colored girl in Oklahoma. One was killed by her brother and their friends thereupon lynched the girl! A Mississippi mob killed a wife along with her husband, leaving a four-year-old child motherless, while in another case a colored woman who had the impudence to refuse to allow her home to be searched was summarily dealt with.
On the other hand, white womanhood received its usual protection. An impudent porter pushed a white woman off the sidewalk and was lynched. In two cases colored men were found in white women’s rooms. They were immediately charged with “attempted” rape and killed.
Human bonfires have been made in three or four cases: one in Georgia, one in Mississippi, and one in Louisiana. In Louisiana the victim was a nice old man of the “uncle” type which the white South particularly loves. A theatrical company playing “Potash and Perlmutter” made an excursion to the entertainment and several society women were present.
All this goes to show how peculiarly fitted the United States is for moral leadership of the world; for putting to shame the dreadful people who are fighting in Europe and seem quite lost to decency. It is a fine thing to have under these circumstances the stern cool leadership of President Wilson, who has recently raised his finger and with a sad look on his benevolent face told the South “as a Southerner” that they must “know the needs of the Negro and sympathetically help him in every way that is possible for his good and for our good.” The President ended with a charming story from Charles Lamb.
Citation: Du Bois, W.E.B. 1915. “The Lynching Industry.” The Crisis. 9(4):196,198.