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 THE NEGRO QUESTION 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE THE WISCONSIN BAR ASSOCIATION 
 
 BT 
 
 MOORFIELD STOREY 
 
 JUNE S7, 1918 
 
 REPRINTED BY THE 
 
 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT 
 OF COLORED PEOPLE 
 
 MOORKIELD STOREY, Preiident JOHN R. SHILLADT, Secretary 
 70 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK 
 
 Price, 10 Cents 
 

Reproduced by 
 DUOPAGE PROCESS 
 
 in the 
 U.S. of America 
 
 Micro Photo Division 
 Bell & Howell Company 
 Cleveland 12, Ohio 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 At the conclusion of the address on "The Negro Question/* 
 bj Mr. Moorfield Storey, which appears in the following 
 pages, the Wisconsin Bar Association appointed a special 
 committee to consider it This committee, headed by Chief 
 Justice (of the Supreme Court) John Bradley Winslow, sub 
 mitted the following report: 
 
 Your committee to whom was referred the address of Hon. 
 Moorfield Storey, with a view to having an expression from 
 this Association on the evils which were so graphically out 
 lined in the address, have given the matter such attention as 
 the brief time at their disposal will allow. We have been 
 deeply impressed by Mr. Storey s address, and while we realize 
 that it is not possible to formulate an adequate program of 
 action at the spur of the moment, we are able nevertheless to 
 express, and do, while yet under the spell of our speaker s elo 
 quence, hereby express our unqualified condemnation of mob 
 violence which has occurred and wherevt*r it has occurred in 
 our land, towards the colored race. It is a time when all the 
 civilized world is profoundly shocked by the inhuman treat 
 ment of the weak and suffering by the strong and brutal hand 
 of the oppressors. But we have to-day been told of things done 
 in our own midst to our colored fellow-citizens that are no less 
 barbaric than the heartrending treatment of the little peoples 
 of the world by their oppressors. We shall reap the whirlwind 
 if we continue to sow the wind, and as lawyers and judges 
 who are sworn to uphold and administer the law let us at 
 once pay heed to the solemn warning that the words of Mr. 
 Storey have sounded in our ears. The acts of violence to this 
 unfortunate race tend to make us indifferent to acts of violence 
 to other races and peoples. The fair name of more than one 
 American community within recent months has been indelibly 
 stained by these outbursts of race hatred and bigotry. It ia 
 high time that we, the lawyers and judges, invoke the law and 
 suppress, so far as we may, the rule of the mob. We lawyers, 
 therefore, pledge ourselves to uphold and inculcate among our 
 fellow-citizens respect for the law, and respect for the legal 
 rights of all races of all members of our own community while 
 we are crying out against the wrongs of people and races upon 
 the other side of the Atlantic. We ask, Mr. Chairman, that a 
 place be made on the program of our meeting next year for a 
 report which we shall then endeavor to have ready, in which 
 we shall hope to give some adequate expression to our hatred 
 of that lawless disregard of the political and social rights of 
 the colored race, which has long <iisgraced us as a nation, and 
 suggest methods by which this protest may be made more effec 
 tual in the way of influencing public opinion throughout the 
 country on the subject. 
 
 YSAflt 
 
tilt 
 
 THE NEGRO QUESTION. 
 
 There are in this country to-day from ten to twelve 
 millions of native Americans entitled under the Con 
 stitution and laws of the United States to every right 
 that any American citizen enjoys and protected against 
 hostile legislation in any State by the Fourteenth 
 Amendment. Yet all over the country their rights are 
 ignored and they are subjected to indignities of every 
 kind, simply because they are Negroes. 
 
 The Constitution expressly provides that the right of 
 citizens to vote "shall not be denied or abridged 
 ... on account of race, color or previous con-\ 
 dition of servitude." Yet in many States this pro 
 vision is ejet at naught. The Negroes have felt the 
 murderous violence of the Ku Klux Klan, they have 
 seen brutality followed by fraud when elections were 
 carried by tissue-paper ballots, and the same results 
 accomplished later by "grandfather clauses" and 
 laws intended to enable election officers to reject 
 their votes. We need .not enumerate the methods 
 for we all know that in the Southern States 
 the Negro vote lias been and is suppressed. This is 
 admitted and justified by the Southern people. 
 
 Negroes are denied the protection which the law af 
 fords the lives and property of other citizens. If only 
 charged with crime or even misdemeanor, they are at 
 the mercy of the mob and may be killed and tortured 
 with absolute impunity. In many States they cannot 
 obtain justice in the courts. At hotels, restaurants and 
 theatres they are not admitted or are given poor accom 
 modation In the public parks and public conveyances, 
 even in the public offices of the nation, they are set apart 
 
 252 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 At the conclusion of the address on "The Negro Question/* 
 bj Mr. Moorfield Storey, which appears in the following 
 pages, the Wisconsin Bar Association appointed a special 
 committee to consider it This committee, headed by Chief 
 Justice (of the Supreme Court) John Bradley Winslow, sub 
 mitted the following report: 
 
 Your committee to whom was referred the address of Hon. 
 Moorfield Storey, with a view to having an expression from 
 this Association on the evils which were so graphically out 
 lined in the address, have given the matter such attention as 
 the brief time at their disposal will allow. We have been 
 deeply impressed by Mr. Storey s address, and while we realize 
 that it is not possible to formulate an adequate program of 
 action at the spur of the moment, we are able nevertheless to 
 express, and do, while yet under the spell of our speaker s elo 
 quence, hereby express our unqualified condemnation of mob 
 violence which has occurred and wherevt*r it has occurred in 
 our land, towards the colored race. It is a time when all the 
 civilized world is profoundly shocked by the inhuman treat 
 ment of the weak and suffering by the strong and brutal hand 
 of the oppressors. But we have to-day been told of things done 
 in our own midst to our colored fellow-citizens that are no less 
 barbaric than the heartrending treatment of the little peoples 
 of the world by their oppressors. We shall reap the whirlwind 
 if we continue to sow the wind, and as lawyers and judges 
 who are sworn to uphold and administer the law let us at 
 once pay heed to the solemn warning that the words of Mr. 
 Storey have sounded in our ears. The acts of violence to this 
 unfortunate race tend to make us indifferent to acts of violence 
 to other races and peoples. The fair name of more than one 
 American community within recent months has been indelibly 
 stained by these outbursts of race hatred and bigotry. It is 
 high time that we, the lawyers and judges, invoke the law and 
 suppress, so far as we may, the rule of the mob. We lawyers, 
 therefore, pledge ourselves to uphold and inculcate among our 
 fellow-citizens respect for the law, and respect for the legal 
 rights of all races of all members of our own community while 
 we are crying out against the wrongs of people and races upon 
 the other side of the Atlantic. We ask, Mr. Chairman, that a 
 place be made on the program of our meeting next year for a 
 report which we shall then endeavor to have ready, in which 
 we shall hope to give some adequate expression to our hatred 
 of that lawless disregard of the political and social rights of 
 the colored race, which has long disgraced us as a nation, and 
 suggest methods by which this protest may be made more effec 
 tual in the way of influencing public opinion throughout the 
 country on the subject. 
 
 YSAfti 
 
ssr 
 
 THE NEGRO QUESTION. 
 
 There are in this country to-day from ten to twelve 
 millions of native Americans entitled under the Con 
 stitution and laws of the United States to every right 
 that any American citizen enjoys and protected against 
 hostile legislation in any State by the Fourteenth 
 Amendment. Yet all over the country their rights are 
 ignored and they are subjected to indignities of every 
 kind, simply because they are Negroes. 
 
 The Constitution expressly provides that the right of 
 citizens to vote "shall not be denied or abridged 
 ... on account of race, color or previous con-\ 
 dition of servitude." Yet in many States this pro 
 vision is set at naught. The Negroes have felt the 
 murderous violence of the Ku Klux Klan, they have 
 seen brutality followed by fraud when elections were 
 carried by tissue-paper ballots, and the same results 
 accomplished later by "grandfather clauses" and 
 laws intended to enable election officers to reject 
 their votes. We need .not enumerate the methods 
 for we all know that in the Southern States 
 the Negro vote lias been and is suppressed. This is 
 admitted and justified by the Southern people. 
 
 Negroes are denied the protection which the law af 
 fords the lives and property of other citizens. If only 
 charged with crime or even misdemeanor, they are at 
 the mercy of the mob and may be killed and tortured 
 with absolute impunity. In many States they cannot 
 obtain justice in the courts. At hotels, restaurants and 
 theatres they are not admitted or are given poor accom 
 modation In the public parks and public conveyances, 
 even in the public offices of the nation, they are set apart 
 
 252 
 
. 
 
 from their fellow-citizens. The districts which they 
 occupy in cities are neglected by the authorities, 
 and of the money whfch the community devotes to edu 
 cation, a very small fraction is allotted to them, so 
 that their schoolhouses and their teachers are grossly 
 inadequate. It is notorious that in many cities they are 
 wretchedly housed and charged unreasonable rents for 
 their abodes. / Labor unions will not receive them as 
 members, and as non-union men they find it hard to get 
 employment. If in spite of every obstacle they gain 
 an education, they find door after door closed to them 
 which would have opened to receive them gladly had 
 their skins been white. The deliberate effort is made 
 to stamp them as inferior, to keep them "hewers ot 
 wood and drawers of water," to deny them that oppor 
 tunity to rise which America offers to every other citi 
 zen or emigrant no matter how ignorant or how de 
 graded. These are the unquestionable facts, and they 
 are not controverted. 
 
 Let me give you some testimony from the South. Says 
 the Atlanta Constitution: 
 
 "We must be fair to the Negro. There is no use 
 in beating about the bush. We have not shown this 
 fairness in the past, nor are we showing it to-day, 
 either in justice before the laws, in facilities af 
 forded for education, or in other directions." 
 
 Some years ago a Mississippi lawyer addressing the 
 Bar Association of that State said : 
 
 "A Negro accused of a crime during the days of 
 slavery was dealt with more justly than he is to 
 day? . . . It is next to an impossibility to con 
 vict even upon the strongest evidence any white 
 man of a crime of violence upon the person of a 
 Negro . . . and the converse is equally true 
 that it is next to an impossibility to acquit a Negro 
 of any crime of violence where a white man is con 
 cerned," 
 
and well did he add, 
 
 "We cannot either as individuals, as a country, 
 as a State, or as a nation continue to mete out one 
 kind of criminal justice to a poor man, a friendless 
 man, or a man of a different race, and another kind 
 of justice to a rich man, an influential man, or a 
 man of our qwn race without reaping the conse 
 quences." 
 
 From the Vicksburg Herald come these words: 
 
 "The Herald looks with no favor upon drafting 
 Southern Negroes at all, believing they should be 
 . exempt in toto because they do not equally share 
 in the benefits of government/ To say that they 
 do is to take issue with the palpable truth. Taxa 
 tion without representation/ the war-cry of the 
 Revolutionary wrong against Great Britain, was 
 not half so plain a wrong as requiring military 
 service from a class that is denied suffrage and 
 which lives under such discriminations of inferi 
 ority as the Jim Crow law and inferior school 
 equipment and service." 
 
 One might criticise such an utterance as intended to 
 encourage resistance to conscription by the Negroes, 
 or might imagine that the writer from these premises 
 would argue against the "wrong" which he recognizes. 
 Alas, no. His argument is that the wrong must be made 
 permanent and the conscription of Negroes abandoned 
 because it makes the wrong too apparent. He says, 
 "Drafting Negroes as soldiers is a gross travesty and 
 contradiction of the color-line creed," and rather than 
 abandon that creed he would deprive his country in 
 this terrible crisis of all the soldiers which twelve mill 
 ions of people are ready and anxious to supply. 
 
 If we ask what is done for education, the report of 
 a careful investigation published by the Bureau of 
 Education in the Department of the Interior is melan 
 choly reading. It gives the facts as to the 16 Southern 
 States, the District of Columbia and Missouri, in which 
 
the population contains a considerable portion of Ne 
 groes, and states that in 15 States and the District of 
 Columbia "for which salaries by race could be obtained" 
 the figures showed an expenditure of "$10.32 for each 
 white child and ?2.89 for each colored child." The 
 conditions are even worse than these figures indicate, 
 for, as the report states, "the per capita expenditure 
 for Negro children is higher in the border States, where 
 the proportion of colored people is relatively small and 
 the proportion for colored high schools is better." The 
 more numerous the Negroes the smaller is the provision 
 for their education. A table in the report shows that 
 in the counties where the percentage of Negroes in the 
 population is less than 10 per cent., the per capita ex 
 penditure for white and colored is nearly equal. It 
 evidently does not pay to maintain separate schools. 
 Where, however, the percentage of Negroes is between 
 50 and 75 |>er cent, the expenditure for the whites is 
 512.53 per capita and for the colored J1.77, while where 
 the percentage exceeds 75 per cent, the expenditure for 
 the whites is $22.22 and for the Negroes only ?1.78 per 
 capita. 
 
 The results may be imagined, and we cannot be sur 
 prised at the testimony which the same report gives 
 from competent witnesses. I quote: 
 
 "The supervisor of white elementary rural schools 
 in one of the States recently wrote concerning the 
 Negro schools: 
 
 " *I never visit one of these [Negro] schools with 
 out feeling that we are wasting a large part of this 
 money and are neglecting a great opportunity. The 
 Negro sehoolhouses are miserable beyond all de 
 scription. They are usually without comfort, equip 
 ment, proper lighting, or sanitation. Nearly all of 
 the Negroes of school age in the district are crowded 
 into these miserable structures during the short 
 term which the school runs. Most of the teachers 
 are absolutely untrained and have been given cer- 
 
tificates by the county board, not because they have 
 passed the examination, but because it is necessary 
 to have some kind of a Negro teacher. Among the 
 Negro rural schools which I have visited, I have 
 found only one in which the highest class knew 
 the multiplication table/ 
 
 "A State superintendent writes: 
 
 " There has never been any serious attempt in 
 this State to oiYer adequate educational facilities 
 for the colored race. The average length of the 
 term for the State is only four months; practically 
 all of the schools are taught in dilapidated churches, 
 which, of course, are not equipped with suitable 
 desks, blackboards, and the other essentials of a 
 school ; practically all of the teachers are incompe 
 tent, possessing little or no education and having 
 had no professional training whatever, except a 
 few weeks obtained in the summer schools; the 
 schools are generally overcrowded, some of them 
 having as many as 100 students to the teacher; 
 no attempt is made to do more than teach the chil 
 dren to read, write, and figure, and these subjects 
 are learned very imperfectly. 
 
 But more dangerous and more wicked than neglect 
 is the barbarous cruelty of lynching. I need not revive 
 the figures of the past. What has happened within a 
 year is enough. Since the United States entered the war 
 a , careful investigation shows that 219 Negro men, 
 women and children have been killed and lynched by 
 mobs in addition to two white^ men, one of these being 
 Robert Prager. Four [Negroes were lynched in Ala 
 bama, 2 in Arkansas, 1 in Florida, 7 in Georgia, 1 in 
 Kentucky, 11 in Louisiana, 3 in Mississippi, 1 in North 
 Carolina, 2 in Oklahoma, 2 in South Carolina, 5 in 
 Tennessee, 9 in Texas, 3 in Virginia, 1 in West Virginia, 
 and 1 in Wyoming. In addition to these cases 175 men. 
 women and children were tortured, burned and killed 
 at East St. Louis in July, 1917, and three Negroes were 
 killed by a mob at Chester, Pennsylvania, in September, 
 
8 
 
 1917.* Since 1885 between 3,000 and 4,000 cases of lynch 
 ing have been reported, and in only three instances does 
 investigation show that any lyncher was punished. In 
 two of these cases the victim of the mob was white. In 
 the third case, that of a particularly atrocious murder 
 of a Tennessee farmer and his two daughters, the lynch- 
 ers were two young and friendless white boys. 
 
 That you may realize what lynching is, let me give 
 you instances. Dyersburg in Tennessee is a prosperous 
 town of some 7,500 people, the county seat and a repre 
 sentative community of the better class. In this town 
 on Sunday morning, December 2, in a lot the corner 
 of which adjoins the public square, and which is within 
 a stone s throw of two churches and the residences of 
 several ministers, as well as of the mayor of the town, 
 while the people of Dyersburg surrounded the scene, 
 watched all that occurred and approved, since no 
 protest was made, a Negro was thus dealt with : 
 
 "The Negro was seated on the ground and a 
 buggy-axle driven into the ground between his legs. 
 His feet were chained together, with logging chains, 
 and he was tied with wire. A tire was built. Pokers 
 and flat-irons were procured and heated in the fire. 
 It was thirty minutes before they were red-hot. 
 
 "His self-appointed executors burned his eyeballs 
 with red-hot irons. When he opened his mouth 
 to cry for mercy a red-hot poker was rammed dofvn 
 his gullet. Red-hot irons were placed on his feet, 
 back and body, until a hideous stench of burning 
 human flesh tilled the Sabbath air of Dyersburg. 
 
 "Thousands of people witnessed this scene. They 
 had to be pushed back from the stake to which the 
 Negro was chained. Koof-tops, second-story win 
 dows and porch-tops were filled with spectators. 
 
 Since this address was written, and between May 15 and June 2 last. 
 three colored men and one wouiau were lynched in Georgia for alleged com 
 plicity in a murder, one has been lynched and his body burned in Tennessee, 
 the whole colored population of the town being forced to witness the burning, 
 and a mother and her five sons have been shot to death in Texas on account 
 of an altercation between one of them and a white man. the woman s daugh 
 ter also being fatally wounded. 
 
Children were lifted to shoulders, that they might 
 behold the agony of the victim. 
 
 "A little distance away, in the public square, 
 the best citizens of the county supported the burn 
 ing and torturing with their near-by presence." 
 
 The Memphis Ncws-Schnitnr thus describes the scene: 
 
 "Not a domino hid a face. Every one was un 
 masked. Leaders were designated and assigned 
 their parts. Long before the mob reached the city 
 the public square was choked with humanity. All 
 waited patiently. Women, with babies, made them 
 selves comfortable. 
 
 "At last the irons were hot. 
 
 "A red streak shot out; a poker in a brawny 
 hand was boring out one of the Negro s eyes. The 
 Negro bore the ordeal with courage, only low moans 
 escaping him. Another poker was working like 
 an auger on the other orbit. 
 
 "Swish. Once, twice, three times a red hot iron 
 dug gaping places in Lation Scott s back and sides. 
 
 " Fetch a hotter one/ somebody said. The ex 
 ecution went on. 
 
 "Now some one had another poker jabbing its 
 fiery point into the ribs of the doomed black. 
 
 "Then rubbish was piled high about the agonized 
 body, squirming beneath its load. 
 
 "More and more wood and rubbish were fed the 
 fire, but at three o clock Lation Scott was not dead. 
 Life finally fled at four o clock. 
 
 "Women scarcely changed countenance as the 
 Negro s back was ironed with the hot brands. Even 
 the executioners maintained their poise in the face 
 of bloody creases left by the irons, irons which 
 some housewife had been using. 
 
 "Three and a half hours were required to com 
 plete the execution." 
 
 Vie cannot but wonder whether on thdt Sunday morn 
 ing, in the shadow of the churches, any of the respectable 
 church-going citizens of Dyersburg who witnessed these 
 horrors remembered the immortal words, "Inasmuch as 
 
10 
 
 ye did it unto one of these my brethren, even these least, 
 ye did it unto me." 
 
 At Estill Springs in Tennessee a Negro charged with 
 killing two white men was in like manner tortured and 
 burned alive. The Chattanooga Times thus describes 
 what occurred: 
 
 "Jim Mcllherron, the Negro who shot and killed 
 Pierce Rodgcrs and Jesse Tigert, two white men, 
 at Estill Springs, last Friday, and wounded Frank 
 Tigert, was tortured with a red-hot crowbar and 
 then burned to death here to-night at 7.40 by twelve 
 masked men. A crowd of approximately 2,000 per 
 sons, among whom were women and children, wit 
 nessed the burning. 
 
 "Mcllherron, who was badly wounded and unable 
 to walk, was carried to the scene of the murder, 
 where preparation for a funeral pyre was begun. 
 
 "The captors proceeded to a spot about a quarter 
 of a mile from the railroad station and prepared 
 the death fire. The crowd followed and remained 
 throughout the horrible proceedings. The Negro 
 was led to a hickory tree, to which they chained him. 
 After securing him to the tree a fire was laid. A 
 short distance away another fire was kindled, and 
 into it was put an iron bar to heat. 
 
 "When the bar became red hot a member of the 
 mob jabbed it toward the Negro s body. Crazed 
 with fright, the black grabbed hold of it, and as it 
 was pulled through his hands the atmosphere was 
 filled with the odor of burning flesh. This was 
 the first time the murderer gave evidence of his 
 will being broken. Scream after scream rent the 
 air. As the hot iron was applied to various parts 
 of his body his yells and cries for mercy could be 
 heard in the town. 
 
 "After torturing the Negro several minutes one 
 of the masked men poured coal oil on his feet and 
 trousers and applied a match to the pyre. As the 
 flames rose, enveloping the black s body, he begged 
 that he be shot. Yells of derision greeted his re 
 quest. The angry flames consumed his clothing 
 and little blue blazes shot upward from his burning 
 hair before he lost consciousness." 
 
11 
 
 The example to these lynchers was set in Memphis, 
 and I quote the following statement from Rt. Rev. 
 Thomas F. Gailor, Episcopal Bishop of Tennessee, a 
 Southern white man, who wrote in the Nashville 
 Banner: 
 
 "I realize that it is futile to attempt by any writ 
 ten word to stem the tide of what seems to be the 
 popular will ; but a man can, at least, declare his 
 abhorrence of such atrocities. 
 
 "This kind of lynching seems to be becoming; epi 
 demic in our State. About two years ago a Negro 
 from Fayette County was lynched most barbarously 
 near Memphis, and parts of his body, according to 
 the newspapers, carried away as souvenirs. Many 
 citizens of Memphis protested, but they were ig 
 nored. Last winter a Negro man near Memphis 
 was burned at the stake, gasoline was poured over 
 his body, and his head was cut off and taken through 
 the city streets as a trophy. Last fall a Negro was 
 burned to death in Dyersburg, and thousands of 
 white people stood by and gloated over his agonies. 
 And now, at Estill Springs, we have another burn 
 ing, where the white men in charge first tortured 
 the miserable creature with a red-hot iron, to 
 break his will, while the victim, already shot nearly 
 to death, with one eye hanging out, screamed for 
 mercy, and a thousand white men, with hundreds 
 of women and children, looked on and were not 
 ashamed." 
 
 These details are revolting, and you may ask me why 
 I harrow you by reciting them. Because unless the 
 hideous horror of the disease is brought home to you, 
 you will not rouse yourselves to find the remedy. 
 
 The massacre of St. Louis is fresh in your memories, 
 and its horrors are well known at the South, as appears 
 by the article in the Greenville News, published at 
 Greenville, South Carolina, of all days on July 4, 
 1917, under the title "The Banner Lynching": 
 
12 
 
 "Twenty Negroes have been killed, three hundred 
 are injured, and more than one hundred and fifty 
 of their homes have been burned. This was the 
 work of a mob that showed no Negro mercy, that 
 did not stop to discriminate between the good and 
 the bad. All that could be caught were^ beaten, if 
 not slain, and battered into pulp. White women 
 caught Negro women and tore their clothes off, beat 
 them and ran them away. As the Negroes ran out 
 of their burning houses, fired by the mob, they were 
 shot down like dogs. One thousand five hundred 
 soldiers do not suffice to control the situation. Hun 
 dreds of Negroes, many of them carrying babies, are 
 fleeing from their former homes. Five hundred of 
 the mob are in jail. 
 
 "The Memphis burning of a Negro at the stake, 
 the Abbeville lynching of Crawford, seem insignifi 
 cant when compared with the East St. Louis sham 
 bles, when the streets ran red with Negro blood, 
 when Negro women, innocent and unoffending, were 
 brutally beaten, when Negro men were shot down 
 for competing with white labor." 
 
 Pages could be filled with the agonizing details of 
 these and similar atrocities. The governors of Tennes 
 see, Mississippi and Louisiana have been appealed to, 
 but have refused to act, pleading a lack of power. In 
 striking contrast has been the action taken by the Gov 
 ernors of Kentucky and both Carol inas, but in spite of 
 their efforts the men who commit these crimes go free 
 like the men who confessed that they murdered Prager. 
 Coatesville in Pennsylvania, Springfield in Illinois the 
 home of Abraham Lincoln, have witnessed scenes 
 scarcely less atrocious, and, though the men who com 
 mitted these hideous crimes were well known and were 
 in some cases indicted, not one was ever punished. The 
 juries refused to convict. 
 
 It is conceivable that in a country as large as ours 
 ruffians might be found so degraded and ferocious as to 
 commit these horrible crimes, but that no attempt should 
 
13 
 
 be made to punish them, that respectable men and 
 women should look on and let their children witness 
 such horrors would be inconceivable were it not clearly 
 true The great body of the community approves or 
 lynching would stop/ Men justify their treatment of 
 the Negroes by saying that it is necessary "to preserve 
 their civilization," while the editor of the Little Rock 
 Daily News recently wrote that he considered white 
 men "just a little lower than the angels" and the Negro 
 "just a little higher than the brutes." What sort of 
 "civilization" do sucli actions reveal, and who are the 
 angels whom these white men so closely resemble? 
 
 The excuse that such things are done to prevent crimes 
 against women is without foundation. Let me answer 
 it by Southern testimony. Dr. W. C. Scroggs of the 
 Louisiana State University says: "Not only is lynching 
 no preventive of crimes against women, but statistics 
 prove that only one time in four are such crimes the 
 cause of lynching. In 1915 only 16 per cent, of the 
 persons lynched were charged with crimes against worn- 
 anhood." I have emphasized the word "charged" for a 
 charge is easily made and often falsely, as figures 
 abundantly prove. In court the man who is charged 
 is presumed to be innocent. To the mob the charge is 
 
 proof of guilt. 
 
 The figures for 1917 abundantly confirm Dr. 
 
 Scroggs : 
 
 "Rape and attempted rape g 
 
 Murder 4 
 
 Assault and wounding 6 
 
 Robbery and theft 
 
 White women (intimacy, annoying, striking, entering room, ^ 
 
 Race prejudice (refusing to give up farm, accidental killing) . . 2 
 
 Opposing draft 
 
 Resisting arrest ^ 4 
 
 Unreported ....... .\ 
 
 Vagrancy, disputing J 17g 
 
 Killed by mobs 
 
 Total 222 
 
14 
 
 No saner words on the subject haye been uttered than 
 these which I quote from Henry Watterson: 
 
 "Lynching should not be misconstrued. It is not 
 an effort to punish crime. It is a sport which has 
 as its excuse the fact that a crime, of greater or less 
 gravity, has been committed or is alleged, A lynch 
 ing party rarely is made up of citizens indignant 
 at the law s delays or failures. It often is made 
 up of a mob bent upon diversion, and proceeding in 
 a mood of rather frolicsome ferocity, to have a 
 thoroughly good time. Lynchers are not persons 
 who strive from day to day toward social better 
 ment. Neither are they always drunken ruffians. 
 Oftentimes they are ruflians wholly sober in so far 
 as alcoholic indulgence is concerned, but highly 
 stimulated by an opportunity to indulge in spec 
 tacular murder when there is no fear that the next 
 grand jury will return murder indictments against 
 them." 
 
 This is the situation which confronts this country. 
 We call it "The Negro problem," but it is not. The 
 Negroes did not come to this country as voluntary emi 
 grants. We white men took them from their homes 
 and brought them here to be our slaves. We held them 
 in slavery for more than two centuries. We called 
 them "chattels," we refused them all the rights of men 
 and did our best to make them brutes. We were afraid 
 to let them learn .and we kept them ignorant. Their 
 patience, their kindliness, their gentleness made all 
 this possible. Had they been less patient, slavery would 
 have perished at the outset. 
 
 During the Civil War waged, at least after 18C3, to 
 free them, they showed a loyalty to their masters which 
 is without a parallel in history. They tilled the soil 
 aud raised the crops which fed the Southern soldiers, 
 who were lighting to keep them slaves. To their pro 
 tection these soldiers confided their wives and children, 
 and, as a leading Southern gentleman said to me, "There 
 
15 
 
 was not a single case in which this trust was betrayed," 
 adding: with tears in his voice, "There never was a 
 better race than the Negroes." This shows how. far 
 they were from brutes. There were in the Confederate 
 States nearly four million slaves, but, as Mr. Rhodes 
 says, they "made no move to rise." In the graphic 
 words of Henry Grady, "a thousand torches would have 
 disbanded the Southern army, but there was not one." 
 
 The Negroes had no voice in reconstruction, nor did 
 they propose or in any way help to carry the amend 
 ments to the Constitution which secure their rights. We 
 forget that Andrew Johnson reconstructed the Southern 
 States on a white basis, and that legislatures of 
 white men chosen by white votes at once passed laws 
 which virtually re-established slavery. The amendments 
 were adopted to save the country from such a calamity 
 and to preserve forever the results of the war. The con 
 temporary records abundantly establish these propo 
 sitions. 
 
 If in the first few years the Negroes made a foolish 
 use of their newly acquired power, they acted under 
 white leaders who led them wrong, and who were abla 
 to do so, because the men to whom for four years they 
 had shown such unexampled loyalty refused to lead them 
 right. At the worst they acted as people act who are 
 ignorant and unfamiliar with the business of the gov 
 ernment. Who had kept them so ignorant and so unpre 
 pared to exercise their rights as men? Compare them 
 with the Bolsheviki, or even with the French in 1789, 
 and tell me that they suffer by the comparison. Com 
 pare their worst follies with the deeds of the Ku Klux 
 Klan, or the atrocities of East St. Louis and Dyersburg, 
 and you must admit that we white men, who for cen 
 turies have been civilized, can cast no stone against 
 them. 
 
 What is there, then, in the Negro which justifies or 
 in any way excuses our treatment of his race? We 
 
16 
 
 brought him here and we have governed him ever since. 
 The conditions which exist are of our own creation. We 
 have made the laws under which he lives ; we administer 
 them. Save in a few States his vote is negligible. He 
 has no representative in Congress or in executive office. 
 He simply exists as God made him and as we have de 
 graded him. While we deny these millions of men their 
 rights as citizens, we demand of them the fulfilment of 
 all the obligations of citizens. We tax their property, 
 and in this supreme crisis of the world s history we 
 demand their lives. Our conscription law recognizes 
 no distinction of color, and loj ally they answer their 
 country s call. 
 
 They do not hold back or plot against the government 
 as do the Sinn Feiners in Ireland, but now as always in 
 our history they have been as ready to fight for their 
 country as any white men. Let me give you the testi 
 mony of their Southern white neighbors. It is from 
 the Charlotte (North Carolina) Xcics that I quote: 
 
 "It is the marvel of the South, as it ought to be 
 the admiration of the whole United States, that 
 when the colored man in the hard stages of the war, 
 through which we are beginning to pass, is being 
 put to the test, lie is measuring up to the full 
 vaJuatiou of a citizen and a patriot. There has been 
 nothing wanting about him. In every activity to 
 which the mind of the country has been directed 
 since it was committed by its great President to 
 war, the Xegrp has fulfilled his obligation. 
 There has not only been a total absence of re 
 sistance, but there has been, rather, a hearty re 
 sponse to every appeal of the government, a thor- 
 . ougli fitting-in with every enterprise that had of 
 necessity to be founded, first of all, upon a spirit 
 of patriotism. These multiplied diversities need 
 not be enumerated. What the colored man has done 
 is made all the more glittering by what he has re 
 fused to do. His efforts and activities speak in 
 terms of eloquence that become the despair of those 
 who seek to portray them." 
 
17 \ 
 
 And to these words I add from the Charleston News 
 and Courier the following: 
 
 "The Negroes have met the first test admirably. 
 Both the drafted men and the Negro leaders of 
 South Carolina have earned the commendation of 
 them which is being freely voiced by white citizens 
 everywhere. The leaders have realized, as it was 
 hoped they would, that in a way their race is on 
 trial. Evidently they are determined that it shall 
 acquit itself well." 
 
 Is there nothing in all this which touches the con 
 science of their countrymen, which appeals to their sense 
 of justice? I put the question to you : Does it touch your 
 consciences? 
 
 It is a white man s problem which confronts us. The 
 fault is in us, not in our colored neighbors. It is our 
 senseless and wicked prejudice against our fellow-men 
 which is the root of all our troubles. The question is, 
 how can we make the white people of this country recog 
 nize the rights which they themselves have given to 
 the Negro, how can we induce them to enforce the laws 
 which they themselves have made for his protection, 
 how persuade them to do him simple justice, how lead 
 them to allow him equal opportunity, to educate the 
 men of whose ignorance we complain, to set the Negro 
 an example of civilization and not of worse than medi 
 aeval brutality, in a word, to help the Negro up and 
 not to beat him down. We can blame him for nothing, 
 for we are responsible for him and his situation. Can 
 we not make the American people feel how cruel, how 
 wicked, how cowardly is their treatment of men who 
 have never injured them, and who are in numbers and 
 resources so much weaker? This is the question on the 
 answer to which the future of this country in no small 
 measure depends. For the crime of establishing and 
 maintaining slavery the white people of this country 
 paid bitterly by the sufferings, losses and demoraliza- 
 
18 
 
 lion entailed by four years of civil war. We may well 
 heed the words of Edmund Burke and "reflect seriously 
 on the possible consequences of keeping in the hearts 
 of your community a bank of discontent, every hour 
 accumulating, upon which every company of seditious 
 men may draw at pleasure." 
 
 When the Irish troops were brought to London by 
 James II., Macaulay tells us how they were regarded 
 by the English : 
 
 "No man of English blood then regarded the abo 
 riginal Irish as his countrymen. They did not be 
 long to our branch of the great human family. They 
 were distinguished from us by more than one moral 
 and intellectual peculiarity. They had an aspect 
 of their own, a mother tongue of their own. . . . 
 They were therefore foreigners; and of all foreign 
 ers they were the most hated and despised ; the most 
 hated, for they had during five centuries always 
 l>een our enemies ; the most despised, for they were 
 our vanquished, enslaved, and despoiled enemies. 
 . . . The Irish were almost as rude as the sav 
 ages of Labrador. [The Englishman] was a free 
 man; the Irish were the hereditary serfs of his race. 
 He worshipped God after a pure and rational fash 
 ion; the Irish were sunk in idolatry and super 
 stition ; . . . and lie very complacently inferred 
 that he was naturally a being of a higher order than 
 the Irishman, . . . who were generally despised 
 in our island as both a stupid and cowardly people." 
 
 Could the most prejudiced white man use stronger 
 terms to paint the inferiority of his colored neighbor? 
 The Irish nation to-day is extremely prosperous, yet 
 the memory of ancient wrongs coupled with the desire 
 for greater political rights makes her a thorn in Eng 
 land s side, when England needs the loyal support of 
 all her citizens. "England s extremity is Ireland s op 
 portunity" in bitter truth. We may well bear this ex 
 ample in mind, and remember how small a fraction of 
 the English Empire is the discontented part of Ireland. 
 
19 
 
 and how much this small discontent costs. We may well 
 ask what is in store fcr us. If it cost us four years 
 of civil war to hold some three or four millions of ig 
 norant Negroes in slavery, what may it not cost us to 
 trample upon the rights and feelings of twelve million 
 freemen, constantly gaining in numbers and education, 
 resources and self-respect! These are questions for me 
 and for you, as well as for every citizen of the United 
 States. What are you doing to answer them? 
 
 Men say that it is for the Southern States to deal 
 with the situation, and that we must not interfere. So 
 in 1850 they said that slavery was a Southern question 
 and that none but Southern men could understand or 
 deal with it. The Grand Army of the Republic living 
 and dead, the soldiers monuments in every town, the 
 green graves in Southern and Northern land alike, bear 
 witness to the falsity of the claim, and prove that the 
 whole nation pays for the fault of any part. It was 
 the blood of white men which was drawn by the sword 
 to pay for the blood of black men drawn by the lash. 
 
 You may say that this is a rhetorical answer. Let us 
 turn to facts and figures. The Presidential election of 
 1916 stirred the country deeply, and we may take the 
 vote cast then to illustrate my point. Louisiana, Kansas 
 and Mississippi are each entitled to 8 representatives 
 in Congress, and must have therefore nearly equal pop- 
 iilations. Ignoring the votes of the small parties, the 
 people of Kansas cast 592,246 votes, the people of Loui 
 siana 86,341 votes, the people of Mississippi 84,675. 
 More than half the people of the latter State are colored, 
 and the proportion is nearly as large in Louisiana. 
 South Carolina with 7 representatives cast 63,396 votes. 
 Arkansas with the same representation 160,296, while 
 Connecticut with only 5 representatives cast 206,300. 
 About 9,000 votes elected a representative from South 
 Carolina. A few more than 10,000 chose one in Lou 
 isiana and Mississippi, if all the votes were cast for the 
 
20 
 
 winning candidates, and as only 1,550 Republican votes 
 were cast in South Carolina, 4,253 in Mississippi and 
 6,466 in Louisiana, they do not seriously affect my point. 
 In Kansas about 74,030 persons on an average voted for 
 each representative, and the delegation was divided, 3 
 Republicans and 5 Democrats. Similar comparisons 
 might be made between other States with like results. 
 
 We should not perhaps be so greatly concerned if 
 these figures merely meant a lack of interest on the part 
 of the voters. Their significance lies in the fact that 
 there was in the Southern States no conflict, for the rea 
 son that the Negro vote was suppressed. The Negroes 
 are counted as voters in determining how many repre 
 sentatives the State shall have, but are not allowed to 
 cast their own votes, so that each Democrat votes for 
 himself and for one or more Negroes, and consequently 
 exercises a much larger influence in the choice of Presi 
 dent and Congress than the voter in Wisconsin or Massa 
 chusetts. In the latter States the voter casts one ballot, 
 
 in the Southern States he casts two or three in effect. 
 
 - 
 
 Remembering how small is the majority in the House of 
 Representatives, it is clear that the policy of the country 
 on all important questions like the incidence of taxation, 
 as well as the administration .of the laws by which 
 the taxes are collected, is determined by men who cast 
 votes which they have no right to cast. Men say that 
 "the South is in the saddle* and the political situation 
 which that phrase describes is due to the suppression of 
 the Negro vote. If the Negroes were not counted in the 
 basis of representation, or if they were allowed to vote 
 freely, this situation would not exist. 
 
 I am not concerned to consider whether the govern 
 ment which rests on a South thus made "solid" is good 
 or bad. I dwell on the facts to make you see that the 
 suppression of the Negro vote does concern you. It 
 takes away a large iraction of your voting power, and 
 if you care whether the administration is in Republican 
 
21 
 
 or Democratic hands, or if you think it possible that 
 cases may arise when issues must be decided which are 
 vital to the country, you must realize that a situation is 
 dangerous where large- bodies of citizens can cast votes 
 to which they are not entitled, when one man s vote 
 counts two or three times as much as another s. 
 
 How is it with the Southern States themselves? Ask 
 their wise men whether the present condition places 
 the fittest citizens in power, ask them what its effect 
 is on the political life of the community, and they will 
 tell you that it is bad. Do not rely on the statements 
 of men in office who owe their positions to the fact 
 that the Negroes cannot vote. They of course speak 
 well of the bridge which has carried them safely over. 
 Ask men who have retired and are disinterested spec 
 tators, ask the men of affairs, ask the students of history, 
 and if they answer fairly they will tell you that where 
 there is only one party and no opposition in a free state, 
 its government will not continue to be good; that whore 
 all great public questions are decided not upon their 
 merits but according to a single prejudice, they cannot 
 be decided wisely; and that where a whole community 
 combines to perpetrate or tolerate injustice upon any 
 class of citizens or even upon a single man, no citizen s 
 rights are safe, for every man s sense of justice is 
 blunted, and he who rides to power on one prejudice to 
 day may be the victim of another prejudice to-morrow. 
 The attempt to punish Dreyfus for a crime he did not 
 commit, supported though it was by the highest officials 
 and the strongest influences in France, nearly overthrew 
 the republic. We may take warning from that lesson. 
 It is still as true as when the ancient statesman uttered 
 it that "only that government is good where an injury 
 to the meanest citizen is regarded as an injury to the 
 State." 
 
 The suppression of the Negro vote injures the whole 
 country, and we must all recognize this and insist that 
 
22 
 
 no man shall cast the ballot which belongs to another, 
 and that the right of every citizen to cast his own vote 
 shall be secure. 
 
 Does not the lack of education concern us? Can a 
 country have a better asset than a body of well-educated 
 citizens? Have we such a superfluity of labor, is our 
 business future so assured, that we can afford to throw 
 away competent men? Even if men are only to be used 
 as soldiers, they need education to be good soldiers. 
 Without it 
 
 (1) They cannot sign their names. 
 
 (2) They cannot read their orders posted daily 
 on the bulletin-board in camp. 
 
 (3) They cannot read their manual of arms. 
 
 (4 ) They cannot read their letters or write home. 
 
 (5) They cannot understand the signals nor fol 
 low the signal corps in time of battle. 
 
 We may well be ashamed to think that out of the many 
 thousand Negroes who are enlisted in our ranks and 
 ready to die for us "many cannot even write a letter to 
 their anxious mothers at home, so little training have 
 they had in the schools of their country." 
 
 As in the human body a diseased part infects the 
 whole, so in the body politic an ignorant and degraded 
 Ixxly of citizens is a menace to the State. Such a class 
 is bad company for its neighbors, its habitations are 
 breeding- pi aces for pestilence which easily spreads from 
 the hovel to the palace, they are also sources of moral 
 infection which spreads even more readily, and they 
 offer retreats for criminals of every kind. They are in 
 fact the bases for hostile raids by enemies of the 
 community. 
 
 The Report on Negro Education to which reference 
 has already been made well says: 
 
 "However much the white and black millions may 
 differ, however serious may be the problems of sani 
 tation and education developed by the Negroes, the 
 
23 
 
 economic future of the South depends upon the ade 
 quate training of the black as well as the white 
 workman of that section. The fertile soil, the mag 
 nificent forests, the extensive mineral resources, and 
 the unharnessed waterfalls are awaiting the trained 
 mind and the skilled hand of both the white man 
 and the black man." 
 
 \ 
 
 The open letter by the Southern University Race Com 
 mission, from which the following passage is quoted, 
 has been called "the most clear-cut statement in favor 
 of the education of the Negroes that has been issued 
 by any body of Southern white men." It says: 
 
 "The solution of all human problems ultimately 
 rests upon rightly directed education. In its last 
 analysis education simply means bringing forth all 
 the native capacities of the individual for the bene- 
 lit both of himself and of society. It is axiomatic 
 that a developed plant, animal, or man is far more 
 valuable to society than an undeveloped one. It is 
 likewise olmous that ignorance is the most fruitful 
 source of human ills. Furthermore it is as true 
 in a social as in a physical sense that a chain is no 
 stronger than its weakest link. The good results 
 thus far obtained, as shown by the Negro s progress 
 within recent years, prompt the commission to urge 
 the extension of his educational opportunities. 
 
 "The inadequate provision for the education of 
 the Negro is more than an injustice to him ; it is an 
 injury to the white man. The South cannot realize 
 its destiny if one-third of its population s unde 
 veloped and inefficient. For our common welfare 
 we must strive to cure disease wherever we find it, 
 strengthen whatever is weak, and develop all that is 
 undeveloped. The initial steps for increasing the 
 efficiency and usefulness of the Negro race must 
 necessarily be taken in the schoolroom." 
 
 There is no answer to the question which Carl Schurz 
 put to the Southern States, 
 
 "How can you expect to succeed in competition with 
 
24 
 
 neighboring communities if it is yonr policy to keep 
 your laborers ignorant and degraded when it is their 
 policy to educate and elevate theirs?" 
 
 We are all interested in the prosperity of every com 
 munity in this country. Whatever helps one helps us 
 all. It is not it cannot be a question which does not 
 concern us whether education is given or denied to the 
 Southern Negroes. 
 
 How is it with lynching? Does not this affect us all? 
 
 In the first place these horrors occur over a wide 
 area. Pennsylvania and Illinois have furnished hideous 
 examples as well as Georgia and Tennessee. While 
 such crimes as these go unpunished and therefore evi 
 dently approved by public opinion, how can we denounce 
 the cruelties of Germany?. How do you suppose such 
 things altoct our country s reputation with really civil 
 ized nations? You can answer this question for your 
 selves if you will remember your boyish feelings about 
 the North American Indians, who never did anything 
 wore cruel than these white Americans, or if you will 
 imagine hearing that such things had been done in 
 Turkey, or Russia, or by Germans in Belgium or Poland. 
 We must end these horrors at home before we can attack 
 others abroad. 
 
 What are we doing? From the President of the 
 United States down and by all great leaders of public 
 opinion silence is maintained. When Prager was hung 
 by the mob the Attorney-General of the United States 
 at once brought the case before the Cabinet, the whole 
 influence of the Administration was used to stir the 
 authorities of Illinois to action and they responded. 
 The prosecution failed because the jurymen did not 
 realize what they were doing, but it was made clear that 
 the Government condemned the act. When, however, 
 Dyersburg and Estill Springs stain our good name only 
 a few voices of little authority are raised in protest, 
 and no attempt is made to punish the criminals. Col- 
 
25 
 
 Jege festivals come and go, but what college president, 
 what orator at Commencement, takes the evil of lynch 
 ing as his subject. The universal silence disgraces us 
 more than the acts themselves. The lynchers are ruf 
 fians and act as such, but the silent statesmen, clergy 
 men and scholars are the best men in the country. 
 
 If the etl ect on the country s good name is bad, what 
 think you is the effect on ourselves? "What education 
 are the children getting whose mothers take them to 
 witness such barbarities, and whose fathers hold them 
 up that their view may be uninterrupted? These children 
 will govern this country in a few years, and how will 
 they govern it? A community so brutalized as those com 
 munities must be where the men are thus tortured is a 
 bad neighbor. We do not let our little children torture 
 animals, for we know that the practice of cruelty de 
 praves those who are guilty of it. Why are we silent 
 when whole communities are thus degraded? If they 
 were threatened with the destruction, of property by 
 conflagration or flood, we should rush to help them. 
 Barbarism is a worse foe than flood or fire. It is a pesti 
 lence whose spread is not recognized until it breaks out 
 in such horrors as that of East St. Louis. Should we 
 not help them to stay its ravages? 
 
 Cannot you realize that your own house is on fire? 
 Attorney-General Gregory in addressing the executive 
 committee of the American Bar Association in May 
 said: 
 
 "We must set our faces against lawlessness within 
 our borders. Whatever we may say about the 
 causes for our entering this war, we know that one 
 of the principal reasons was the lawlessness of the 
 German nation what they, have done in Belgium, 
 and in Northern France, and what we have reason 
 to know they would do elsewhere. For us to toler 
 ate lynching is to do the same thing that we are 
 condemning in the Germans. Lynch law is the 
 most cowardly of crimes. 
 
26 
 
 "Invariably the victim is unarmed, while the men 
 who lynch are armed and large in numbers. It is 
 a deplorable thing under any circumstances, but 
 at this time above all others it creates an ex 
 tremely dangerous condition. I invite your help 
 in meeting it. 
 
 "The two excuses usually given are thai there are 
 no adequate laws and that the laws we have are 
 not properly enforced. The people of this country 
 must be given to understand that we have means 
 of protecting those in the field and those at home 
 and what is being done to accomplish that result. 
 
 "I urge you through such machinery as you see 
 fit to adopt to assist in getting before the people 
 of this country the facts that laws are now on the 
 statute books or will be within a few weeks which 
 will reasonably protect the interior defences of 
 our country, that an honest, adequate and earnest 
 force is dealing with this situation ; and that unless 
 the hysteria which results in the lynching of men 
 is checked it will create a condition of lawlessness 
 from which we will suffer for a hundred vears." 
 
 He had in mind the case of Prager, but what he said 
 applies with even greater force to the lynching of Ne 
 groes, and it is absolutely true. Lawlessness is a dis 
 ease which spreads rapidly and insidiously. You have 
 not forgotten the night-riders of Kentucky who terror 
 ized large parts of the State and paralyzed the adminis 
 tration of the law for a considerable time. Their efforts 
 were intended to prevent their neighbors from selling 
 tobacco at pi-ices and to a customer that they did not 
 approve, in a word, from exercising their unquestion 
 able right to deal as they would with their own prop 
 erty. You must remember also the trials at Indian 
 apolis and Los Angeles which showed that the leaders 
 of labor unions had been engaged in a gigantic con 
 spiracy to promote their objects by blowing up factories, 
 bridges, buildings and newspaper offices, causing enor 
 mous damage to property and more terrible danger tD 
 
27 
 
 human life. You have not forgotten the case of Leo 
 Frank in Georgia taken from the State Prison and 
 lynched though he had been duly convicted and im 
 prisoned according to law. The Georgia mob blamed 
 the Governor for commuting his sentence from death 
 to imprisonment and therefore killed Frank. The lynch- 
 ers were known and might have been prosecuted, but 
 they were set free, while the Governor who commuted 
 the sentence was threatened with being lynched him 
 self. You read in the newspapers every little while that 
 some man has been tarred and feathered or otherwise 
 u bused because he lias not bought as many Liberty Bonds 
 as some of his neighbors think he ought to have bought. 
 Criticism of the Government is attended to-day with 
 great risks even in the courts, where extraordinary sen 
 tences are imposed for the expression of unpopular 
 opinions. The mob is waiting in all these cases and, 
 ignorant of the facts, asserts its own standard of pa 
 triotism or generosity, any deviation from which is 
 punished by death without trial. 
 
 When this war is over we know that contests between 
 employer and employee are certain, and the air is full 
 of wild claims made by the Bolsheviki and their con 
 geners all over the world. Such periods of readjust 
 ment as that which awaits this nation are always dan 
 gerous, and if lynchers go unpunished we may find their 
 methods employed against the capitalists who excite 
 their wrath, the courts and the public oflicers who 
 stand in the way of what the mob of the moment de 
 sires, and even counsel may share the fate of their 
 clients. Lawyers have never been very popular since 
 the days of Jack Cade, and many ruffians believe with 
 him that they should all be hanged. When the Mis 
 souri Compromise was repealed, Charles Sunnier warned 
 the Senate of the United States that they were sowing 
 dragon s teeth which in time would arise as armed 
 men. Four years of civil war proved him a true prophet. 
 
28 
 
 We are repeating the sowing, and the crop is just as 
 sure. Believe me, the dangers which threaten our civil 
 ization from lawlessness are greater and far more real 
 than any which Prussian soldiers can inflict. 
 
 I have come half across the continent to see if I 
 cannot make you realize the situation and strr some of 
 you at least to action. We are lawyers, who more than 
 any other men are bound to support the law. We under 
 stand what lawlessness means and what its dangers 
 are. The men in the communities where lynchings 
 occur, who are silent, must confess either that they 
 approve the crimes or are too cowardly or too selfish 
 to make a public protest. The ruffians are essentially 
 weak they are cowards, or they would not treat as they 
 do their helpless victims. Public opinion, the strongest 
 force in any country, once aroused and expressed would 
 stop these outrages. There is no man in this country, 
 North or South, in Massachusetts and Wisconsin as 
 well as in Louisiana or Mississippi, who is not bound 
 to help rouse this public opinion. If we are silent we 
 also must admit that we are cowardly or indifferent, 
 or that we approve. Either attitude should be impos 
 sible. Let us speak out and keep speaking out until 
 our condemnation is felt by every community, and the 
 men who now commit these hideous barbarities learn 
 from what we say that this country cannot tolerate 
 them. The enforcement of the law by the constituted 
 authorities would frighten the perpetrators. Are they 
 afraid to do their duty? If so, the community must give 
 them courage or elect better men. If they dread the 
 loss of office, make them realize that the law-abiding 
 citizens have more votes than the criminal classes, and 
 that they will not forgive neglect of duty. 
 
 We are asking our Negro fellow-citizens to give their 
 lives to their country. Such arguments as I have quoted 
 from the Vicksburg Herald might well have made them 
 hesitate, but with cheerful readiness and loyalty they 
 
29 
 
 have come forward at our call. They have been met 
 with jeers from many quarters, with insults, with the 
 suggestion from high officers that they should not ex- 
 erciso their legal rights for fear of exciting unjust race 
 prejudice, witli proposals that they should serve as la 
 borers and not as soldiers, but notwithstanding all these 
 things they have never failed or faltered. They are men 
 with feelings and ambitions like our own. Do you think 
 they do not realize the contrast between Houston and 
 East St. Louis? Of the occurrences at the latter the 
 Grand Jury after investigation said: 
 
 "East St. Louis was visited by one of the worst 
 race riots in history, a siege of murder, brutality, 
 arson and other crimes, hitherto of such a loath 
 some character as to challenge belief. After hear 
 ing all evidence we believe the riots at least the 
 occurrences which led up to them were deliber 
 ately plotted." 
 
 At Houston no one who reads the evidence can doubt 
 that the Negroes were stung into action by great provo 
 cation. Here arc the comparative figures: 
 
 Houston Eafi St. Louis 
 
 17 white persons killed. 125 Negroes killed. 
 
 13 colored soldiers hanged. 10 colored men imprisoned for 
 
 41 colored soldiers imprisoned fourteen years. % 
 
 for life. 4 white men imprisoned four- 
 
 4 colored soldiers imprisoned. teen to fifteen years, 
 
 f) colored soldiers under sen- 5 white men imprisoned five 
 
 tence of death ; temporarily years. 
 
 reprieved by President. 11 white men imprisoned under 
 
 40 colored soldiers on trial for one year. 
 
 life. IS white men fined. One col- 
 
 White policeman who caused the ored man still on trial for 
 
 riot not even indicted. life. 
 
 No white army officers tried. 17 white men acquitted. 
 
 (Military law.) (Civil law.) 
 
 How does the contrast affect you? How must it affect 
 our colored fellow-citizens? 
 
30 
 
 We owe it to them we owe it to ourselves that 
 while they are giving their lives abroad to make the 
 world safe for democracy we should do our part to make 
 this country safe for their kindred at home, or, to quote 
 a better phrase, we should "make America safe for 
 Americans/ 
 
 Upon me, upon all of you, rests the clear duty of 
 helping create the public opinion which will accomplish 
 this end. The time has been when in Wisconsin regard 
 for human rights and determination that they should 
 be respected animated this people, when they followed 
 leaders who really believed in the principles proclaimed 
 in the Declaration of Independence, when in their zeal 
 they even defied the Supreme Court of the United States. 
 May I express the hope that this faith is not dead and 
 that the cause which I am advocating may find here 
 leaders and friends? 
 
National Association 
 for the Advancement of Colored People 
 
 70 FIFTH AVENUE. NEW YORK 
 
 Official Organ - THE~CR^ - Published Monthly. 
 
 July, 1019, 235 Branches^ 41 States. Membership 65,000. 
 
 NATIONAL OFFICERS 
 
 President 
 MOOBFIELD STOREY 
 
 u 
 
 Vice-Presidents 
 
 BISHOP JOHN HURST 
 
 OSWALD GARRISON VILLARD 
 
 EXECUTIVE OFFICERS 
 JOHN R. SHILLADY, Secretary 
 
 JAMES WELDON JOHNSON, Field Secretary 
 WALTER P. WHITE, Assistant Secretary 
 
 BOARD OF DIRECTORS 
 Chairman, MARY WHITE OVINOTON, New York 
 
 Baltimore 
 Bishop Jjhn Hurst 
 
 Boston 
 
 Joseph Prince Loud 
 Moorfield Storey 
 Butler R. Wilson 
 
 Buffalo 
 
 Mary B. Talbert 
 
 Chicago 
 
 v r Jane Addams 
 *, Dr. C. E. Bentley 
 
 Memphis 
 R. R. Church 
 
 New Haven 
 George W. Crawford 
 
 York 
 
 Rev Hutchens C. Bishop 
 Dr *W. E. B. Du Bois 
 Rev. John Haynes Holmes 
 Dr. V. Morton Jones 
 
 New York 
 
 Florence Kelley 
 Paul Kennaday 
 John E. Milholland 
 Capt. Arthur B. Spingarn 
 Major J. E. Spingarn 
 Charles H. Studin 
 Oswald Garrison Villard 
 Lillian D. Wald 
 William English Walling 
 
 Philadelphia 
 
 Dr. William A. Sinclair 
 
 Springfield 
 
 Rev. G. R. Waller 
 
 St. Louis 
 
 Hon. Charles Nagel 
 
 Wilbcr force 
 
 Col. Chas. Young, U. S. A. 
 
 Washington 
 
 Prof Geo. William Cook 
 Archibald H. Grimke 
 Charles Edward Russell 
 
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