Atlanta world. (Atlanta, Ga.) 192?-1932, December 30, 1931, Wednesday City Edition, Image 2

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Newspaper Page TextPAGE TWO %Tuskegee Reports 13 Lynchings in 1931; A.N.P Says 15 ‘ BY AIN ¥ P ¢ CHICAGO, Dec, 30 — (ANP)- “According to the report of the de partment of records and research at Tuskegee institute, there were 13 lynchings in the United States during the year 1931 or eight less | than for 1930, for which 21 were -reported. ,.i The number 13 is two less than| that of 15 reported by the ~’\s,~o—" xciated Negro Press. Dr. Monroe Work, director of the records :mdl research department at Tuskegcu, who is in this city studying for his doctorate at the University of Chicago, in an interview regarding this difference, stated that it was chis: policy to understate rather than to overstate in respect to 1ynchings1 and that his department never set| up as a lynching any occurrence | which it could not defend. There .were bound to be differences of opinion, he added as to what con- | stitutes a lynching, and scarcoh" any two agencies would agree. : . The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People "explained Dr. Work, annually “broadcasts a list of the lynchings “which varies from the Tuskesec 1ist, but the N. A. A. C. P. always - advises with Tuskegee before issu ;‘j‘n‘g its roll. =v The differences between the Tus skegee list and the roll of the Asso aciated Negro Press concern tiwo s@deaths, one in Arkansas and the other in Alabama. In the Arkansas case, John Park er, a colored man had been arrest .&£d for killing a man. A white far- Jner and a colored employe set out to track Parker down. They en countered him on a road in the custody of officers. The white far mer and his colored employe took ;Parker from the officers, carried s$im away and shot him to death . Ihe exception taken by Dr " Work in this ease was that thc - white farmer and the Negro om v\_ployo, just two persons, did not _ constitute a mob. i In the Alabama case, Wess Skip per, a white man, was Killed by six other white men. Skippcer had been accused of mistreating his wife. The six white men went to his home to punish him. Skipper was Kkilled in the fight which en ;isued. . Dr. Work did not have informa tion regarding these occurréhces at Jhis disposal. ~ Free Husband (continued from page one) her beneath the house intoxicated. Undertakers declined to give any comment one way or other but -admitted that both Mrs. Andrews and her husband were middle aged folk. The ambulance driver for the Hanley Company. Pete Turner, who has been retained as a witness by police, claimed that when he arrived the woman was lying on the floor of the front room with the shotgun nearby. Turner de clined to give any other statemeént save that Andrews was from his home town. Norwood, Ga., and had always been of good character. He claimed that he saw no burns from the discharge of the gun but that tne entire volley of shots had been poured into the wound, showing that it must have been fired at close range. L Hayes, Darrow (Continued from Page 1) lhis motion had been acted upon. Following their sentence at the Scottsboro trial, which was heavily guarded by National Guardsmen, the youngsters were brought here for safety, later being transferred to Kilby Prison for safekeeping up on an order signed by Judge Haw kins. That the actio nof the defense may not be ended by the refusal of the Supreme Court to grant a new' trial was intimated by Mr. Hayes. Only matter brought out in the original trial will be considered in the arguments at Montgomery while new evidence that is being secured will be used in further steps that may be taken if a new trial is denied or in the next trial in the event that the motion is granted. At the time that the bill of exceptions was heard at Mont gomery recently, that offered by the I. L. D. was rejected. Protests from all parts of Ameri ca by individuals and organizations have swamp<d Gov. Miller ever since the boys were sentenced. Mes sages have been received {rom a number of foreign countries includ ing Switzerland, Germany, Cuba. Russia, France, Canada, England, and lesser European and South A merican domains. &and Mrs. Hayes left for a va ca in Mexico City: Mexico, while Mr. Darrow returned to his h?}f in Chicago upon fhe comple tion..of their work here. A N.P. SURVEY OF EVENTS IN 1931 Action, action, action—that is the chief impression to be gained by a perusal of the files of The Associat ed Negro Press for 1931, If progress ;is not discerning. there 1s no sign of retreat. In the battle for exist !encc. throughout the world, black ‘men are seen holding their ground In the face of a world-wide depres sion exerting an zalmost resistless social and economic pressure. Ne groes are seen not to be even think ing that there is a force extant which threatens their status. a men ace to the gains already won. Cease less activity on all fronts during the past year indicates that the vear 1931 has been a sort of Verdun in which the men and women of th race have repulsed all the destruc tive and devitalizing influences created by the depression and have waited hopefully for the first sign of a chance to begin a new forward march. - . 1 Foreign In 1930, Ethiopia and Haitl came under the spotlight of international affairs. But during the past ycear. there was a decrease of activity in Abyssinia that would interest the world reader and Liberic was forc ed to the front to share the cal cium glare with the perennially interesting Haiti. For several months unofficial reports had been coming out of Monrovia of the ex istence of slavery in the West Afri ca republic. These reports were con firmed early in the year by the| publication of the report of the In ternational Commission which was sent to Liberia to study that con dition. Further investigation was made by George Schuyler. His observations sn slavery in the republic and oth sr conditions, published serially in the white and colored press, were, in the main uncomplimentary. Re percussions of the slavery disclos ures were felt in the United States, at Geneva and in the Liberian elec tions in May. The government of Liberia received a “warning” from the American government; the Lea-i gue of nations appointed anoher{ commission to help set Liberia a-| richt. and in the elections, Theo dore Faulkner was deleated by Ed-| win Barclay. Faulkner was said to! have been the people’s choice. In the reports on slavery, Barclay had been indicted as a beneficiary of the slave system existing. Post elec ‘ien charges were made that Bar clay's victory was bought. Uncle Sam might be expected to comment confidentiaily that those Haitians just will not keep still. With the orderly election of a leg islature and a new president, Stenio Vincent, in 1930, a period of some thing like amity between the Hai tian and American government was anticipated. But the events of the year just past show that the rela tions of the two governments have been anvthing but pacific and trust ing. The Haitians seem .actually to have believed that when they elec ted Stenis Vincent, he was to be an executive who would exercise the nrerogatives of his office with au thority superior to anyone else in the republic an dindifferent to the overt or covert influence of the United States. Early in the year, a violent flareup occurred when Perceval Thoby. former president of the Patriotic Union, and minister of the interior, disagreed on mat tors of policy with the United States naval officers who supervised the department of public works. Fail ure of Thoby to obtain a vote of confidence from the Haitian legis lature led him and the other mem bers of the cabinet to resign. A new cabinet was appointed. President Vincent himself ran Into these nav al officers later when he sought to give commissions to Haitidn tech nical workers in the department of public works. Up until that time, all commissions had been authoriz ed by the naval heads and restrict ed to Americans. Despite the stiff arm of the American minister. Dana Munro, Vincent won the skirmish. More serious, however, was the apprehensions caused when the American Financial Advisor sought. ih the course of national budget trimming, to reduce the salaries ol Haitian officials. including the president. The Haitians stuck their tongues in their cheeks and told the advisor that they would sub mit to a reduction if Americans, earning bonuses in the Haitian service, would agree tc decrease them. After the flyving of much fur, the Americans agreeably agreed and a cause of war averted. Evidence of a new policy on the part of the American government toward Haiti is apparent. Until this year, Americans had practicaly do minated five spheres of official ac tivity in the republic; the depart ment of finance, the gendarmerie, the health department. education and agriculture, and the department of public works. At the end of the summer, the United States. by trea ty, relinquished control of health, except in special cases, public works educaticn and agriculture. We still retain our hold on the Haitian gour des and th esoldier boys of the re public. Dantes Bellegarde. leading Hai tian statesman, was appointed United States minister. He drew the fire of Major General Smedley D. Butler, former commander of the marines in Haiti ,when he told reporters that he and many other Haitians knew nothing of a Fort Riviere, for the capture of which General Butler had received the distinguished service cross. Butler demanded an apology which Belle garde did not give, but concluded a supplementary statement with the cbservation that the fort might have existed although he, a Haitian bxstorian. and other Haitians were ignorant of it. The effect of the in terchange between the two men was to create the impression that if Fort Riviere did exist, it could not have heen much of a fort and that in its capture, Butler did not perform much of a feat Haiti. playing no tavorites, also made a diplomatic protest to Great Britizn when a British captain, an choring in Haitian waters, failed to observe the proper courtesies. Perhaps the outstanding position attained by any Negro during the vear was that of Blaise Diagne, Senecealese member of the French chamber of deputies, who was ap pointed to the cabinet of Premier pPierre Laval as under secretary of state for the colonies. For the Colonial Exposition held later in the year outside Paris, Jo sephine Baker, an American Negro sirl. was chosen queen of the colon ies, and during the period of the cxposition,. exhibits from the black colenies of France were among the chief attractions for visitors to the ¢xposition, I ¥ . 1 ['nusual Domestic . | Happenings | Doubtless the most significant event of the year is what has come to be known as “The Scottsboro| Affair.” It became noteworthy or| notorious. as you will, first because of the scarcity of evidence aguinst' those accused and because of the severity of punishment meted. Eight boys, ranging in age from 14 to 20! vears, were sentenced to death at Scottsboro, Ala. for an alleged at tack on two white girl hoboes. ; The Scottsboro Affair attracted wide public attention to communist | activities among Negroes and ! brought the liberal Negro groups! and the communists. The Inter national Labor Defense, a commu nist arm. injected itself early into a fight to save the lives of the boys | at Scottsboro. Machinery was set in operation to raise funds among Negroes for defense. At the same time, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored Peo-| ple swung into action. It sought funds for the same purpose. So far as the public knows. no effort was made by these two groups to unite in defense of the boys Each orga nization was suspicious of the met hods of the other The NAACP, many of whose officers had been suspected of being Painted with radicalism up until that time, was found to be too conservative by the communists, and Walter White, dynamic secretary of the NA A.C.P. alarmed at 1,700 threatening mes- sages sent the governor of Alabama. | described the communists as “in-| temperate” and charged moreover.| that they were not interested in the lives of the condemned boys. “The boys may be executed, so far as they care,” stated Mr. White | in effect. “if the communists can usc] their case to help build an orga-: nization among Negroes who suffer! from persecution in the United| States.” | Neither side would yield a point.| Negroes and whites contributed to; two defense funds, some organiza-| {ions contributing to both. Matters came to such a pass finally thnt' Comrade (?) Dubois, Comrade (?)| White, Comrade (?) Pickens, Com-} rade (?) Schuyler .and other elastic[ reasoners in the name of breadth, lifted their skirts and went Hw’ way of the old-time socialist. It became apparent that except I':)rf Eugene Gordon and a few o hers | our suspected communists voere | certainly not of the I. L. D. type.| and possibly not of the Revolution-| ary Age. As the year comes to an end, both groups appear to have gained. World-wide attention was focussed | on the fate of the Scottsboro vic-| tims as a result of the communist, activity —— American consulates in| Germany were attacked, and im-! portant men from Mexico to Rus sia spoke out publicly against the atrocity. The number of Negro com munists in the United States., under | the spur of the depression, bas| grown. The N.AAC.P. appears to| have the inside track in the de-/| fensé of the Scottsboro victims and| the best chance of saving their| lives. Responsible Negro leador'shin: and opinion has become a bit wory! of communist methods and cispic-| ious of communist sincerity. Con-/ fidence ‘in the N A A C P at | tacked by the communists, 's un shaken among the Negroes it reach-| es. although there remains a dis-| position to see what, if anything, | zan be obtained by giving faverable | ear to communist inducements. ! A by-prrduct of communist ac-! tivity in Jbamu, predicted by the NAACP wis an outhieak at Camp Hill in which one Negro was arrested, several wounded and near ly two score arrested. The trouble . occurred when officers broke in on. Negroes meeting in a church, I!i was believed that they were being | organized by communists. Some | communist literature was reported | found. The leaders among these| sharccroppers. if there were any. escaped. No action was taken a gainst the slayver of the Negro, who | was shot as he lav wounded. and | several ofthose arrested. disappear- | ed mysteriously { In August, two of three white| girls in Birmingham. Ala. who were | out riding in an automobile. were| kidnapped and killed The surviv-| ing girl charged that a Negro was| the abductor ¢nd slaver. After sove- | ral weeks' investigation Willie | Peterson was seen on the streets | of Birmingham and identified. He was arrested and, later, while still| in prison. was shot five times by a! brother of one of the slain girls He was tried in Noyember. A jurv ot twelve men was out more than| ofrty-four hour without being able to reach a verdict and the judge ordered a mistrial. \ At Norfolk, Va. William Har per, who had been convicted of an attack on a white woman and sen tenced to die, was retried and uc quitted on the grounds that testi mony against him in the first tra| had been perjured. Two of the wit- THE ATLANTA WORLD, ATLANTA, GA. !nosscs. gllcged to have perjured, | were white women, Dorothy Skagg: | the victim of the alleged attack. and | Katherine Ketchum ,both married. ]Af!or Harper's acquittal, Mrs. Skaggs was tried and convicted ot 'pm’jury. Mrs. Ketchum was indict ed on a charge of periury. At a ‘s(‘mnd trial, Mrs Skaggs was ac-| | quitted and the charge against Mr:s. | Ketchum was then nolle prossed. | ! Six Negroes were clectrocuted at i Columbia, S. C. They had been con | victed of the murder of two white | men | ! Eleven Negro conviets were| il‘n{l:‘«,h“d alve in a North Carolina i prison fire ¢t Wijll Manier, a white man was given a sentence of 21 vears in jail at Gainesbore. Tenn. for killing al : Negro. | The Nashville Banner, whilc! i daily: was sued by a white man | because he was identified as a Ne | gro in a news story The story con i(‘orne(l a crime to which the white ' man was a party The court held ' the newspaper guiltless because no . harm had been done by calling the | white man, a thief a Negro | . C. Eubanks Tucker. a New Bern, AL . went t6 court to have him self recognized as a white man. The Bidge entered an order on Saturday | W that effect. On Sunday, the judge | by special order .rescinded the first one and left Tucker pairt while, | part black and part red . | The appointment of William H Carter, treasurer of Tuskegee insti {ute. as receiver for the Knights ot Pythias of that state. was reported a5 the first position of thal Kind by a Negro in thatl stote . Wilfred Brunder, West Indian Negro. living in New York, was found to have banked more than | a_million dollars out of the “num hers racket” without paying any lthx He fled from government | azents. but later returned and paid | 245000 back tax order to escape La jail term. The United States fool ' cd him by taking his money and | rowarding him with a nine-months | sentence. 1 At FElberton; Ga,. Johnh Dowiet | was convicted of an atiack on a bwhite girl swhile hor escort looked lon after a jury had deliberated lonly six minutes, and sentenced to I die. the evidence against him was La pair of shoes found in his house | which seemed to make tracks like i those found nead the scene of the i crime. White and colored lawyers R ¢ & . e p l Dot - — T b Y e o o - TEEy e N W 2y IS L AR Announcing - ‘ N 3% WANT AD DEPARTMENT : BN f Ny TR " (] BN £ ATLANTA WORLD . R _..,',1,,’;5 E Rev. S, Ralph Wilson | © S R W T - e = MANAGER g IR BRI VAR Ml I S 2 it Rt GIESCA £ v SO LRGBS AT 8141 N ITT T ERME iR VPR , Mt | LR o0 T2 3 R SRR 0T34 4 O A AN W \ N Bty /] (] )- :;: ) : AN\ V) FOR QUICK RESULTS B ; e & IF YOU WANT TO SELL ANYTHING, [ ' g §% B IF YOU WANT TO BUY ANYTHING, o % B %. 1 | IF YOU WANT TO RENT ANYTHING, e | '.555 ?,l e [ YOU WANT A JOB DOING ANYTHING, 7§ IF YOU WANT WORKERS OF ANY SORT, A % 8 IF YOU WANT TO LEASE YOUR PROPERTY, AR IR IEE 4 OR WHATEVER ELSE YOU WANT TO RRRE T | Ta N SELL, RENT, OR BUY— AW REMEMBER e %2“ F"‘ T T Tolall WA 1459 Ui e B . jnined in an effort to obtain a new irial Tho point was woh when the United States Circuit court of ap penls 4t New Orleans granted the plea on the grounds that the jury might Lve been influenced by the actions of a large mob inside and outside of the courtroem. Joreph Kennedy a West In dian Neuro living in Boston, won 8150.000 with a ticket he held in an Envlich sweepstakes race, He soon retarned to the West Indies. A iy in Tampa, Fla, acquitied David 1.aw of a murder charge. Law had killed a white man, Al bert G Bond. who came in the night time to collect a small debt with a pistol The Pierson murder case, involv- Ling the murder of Edward D. Pier | <o, former auditor for the Nation 11 Babtist Convention, was brought to a close with the dismissal of charges against those indicted: the Revy A M Tovisend: the Hey B . J. Westbrooks ,and one George Washington. Ira Short white Texan, was given .o life sentence for killing Richard Tohnson, a Negro. C € Spaulding, president of the North Carolina Mutual Life Insur ance company, was beaten up by a ' white drug clerk in Raleigh, N. C, | when Mr. Spaulding started to ' drink a bottle of soda water at the fountain. The clerk was later fined 1 $15 and costs for the offense. The drug store in which the incident ocetirred wias part of a Negro es tate A white woman in Mississippi sent a Negro to purchase some poi son. She gave that poisonh o her baby. The Negro was convicted of murder. He said he did not know what he was buying, nor for what it was to be tsed In Kansas City, Mo., Albert Silk, white merchant, who took a colored cmploye out in his automobile and murdered him, was let off with a twenty-year sentence. . Lynchings There have been two distinet aspects of lynching activity this vear which have had special signi ficance. One was the organization of a group of prominent southerns white and colored, into a commis sion to investigate the lynchings of the year before. This commission finithed its study and reported on each act of lypching. 'The repobt showed that there wze only small percentage of rape charged, that in most instances there was it evidence to indicate that the vic tim was not guilty ot tne «uw ‘made and that in other cases, Ne¢- groes had been lynched on ver) flimsy pretexts. The report was re ceived favorably by the white and colored press, north and south. (! equal significance with the work of this commission was the attempt in several states, north and souun, to force the passage of anti-lynch- | ing bills. For several years the em- | phasis had been placed on a na- | tional anti-lynching, law, but thisg vear there were legislators in thvf several states prepared to go limit in protecting their statest against | the outrage of mod murder. Mis- | souri, the first state to have a | lynching in 1931, was the first to | consider an anti-lynching measure. | The bill passed both houses of the | legislature and was sent to the | governor. He voted it because he | said, it lacked teeth, Anti-lynching | measures were placed before the legislature in Tennessee twice dur ing the yeat. A bill presented in February failed to become law. | Another bill was introduced in | December by Representative George Chamlee. He is the son of | Attorney George Chamlee, ('“‘hatm-§ nooga lawyer employed by the In ternational Labor Defense, -comm unist organization, in behalf of the Scottsboro victims. Early in the year, as a vresplit of N A A C P activity following lynchings at Marion, Ind., the legislature of that state enacted into law an anti lynching which Governor Leslie signed. Anti-lynching measures were also introduced into the New York legislature and that of North Cargclina. In South Carolina, a bill was introduced to repeal the anti lynching law of that state which reqiires the county to pay the family of a lynch vietim $2.000. The ‘ieffo:’t to repeal was not successful. . Computing the number of lynch | ings is ;. matter of definition. What 'is a lynching? The Associated Ne ' gro Press has chosen to regard as lynching the deaths of men or wo ‘men which have occurred at the ihands of mobs (two or more per 'sons) which have set out after the | victims with punitive intent. The ‘record of 15 for the vear stands to Eth(‘. discredit o f the fsllowing istates: ‘Mississippt -~ - : 3 ‘Alabama . .. - v 2 e . [West Yivgihia ... . 'y Migsoml . ] Norlh Dakota = = | 'Tonnessee : o folisépe ... ... | Hrkapsas ... .. . . ] Marylgnd ... ... .. ] gotd . .. 1§ MISSISSIPPI--- George Spann, a tenant farmer, who shot a n d wounded his white landlord at Clarksburg, was tracked by blood hounds and killed by a mob in February. Eli Johnson was lynch ed by a mob in March at Redwood, Miss.,, for an alleged attack on a white woman. In the same month was reported the lynching of Steve Wiley on the city limits of Inver ness for an alleged uttack on the wife of a mercantile dealer. Cole man Franks was hanged by a group of unmasked white men out side of Columbus, Miss, in Nov ember because he had shot Clyde Bell, a white farmer. ALABAMA — Wess Skipper, & white man living outside Doth: n. Ala.,, was lynched by six white men in February who went to his home to punish him for his treat ment of his wife when he deficd them. On unnamed Negro boy, 16 vears old, and accused of attempt ed rape on an ll-year-old white girl, was lynched at Sandy Ridue, ‘Ala., by , mob of citizens who shot him thirty-two times. ] ‘ Southern women, gathered at Atlanta, Georgia, issued a protest against the observance of Lincoln's birthday as a holiday. Colored citizens of l.os Angele: were incensed because they were excluded from exercises celebrat ing the 150th anniversary of tlhe founding of the city. They product ed historical records to prove that Negroes formed a large percentage of the first settlers of the city. FLORIDA Richard Smike and Charles Smoke were lyncied out of Blountstown in August by a mob of masked citizens. The father and son had been accused of at tacking Frozier Willisms, whitc forest ranger. —and were ocal en bond furnicshed by their employer. WEST VIRGINIA -Tom Jackson and George Banks were taken froam the county jail at Lewisburg carly in December and lynched. They had been arrested in con nection . Withh fthe death of two white men. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 230, 1931 | MISSOURI -- Raymond Gunn was lynched by a mob at Mary ville in January for an attack on a white teacher, | { | NORTH DAKOTA-Charles ! | Bannon, white farm hand, was lynched by a mob at Schafer, N. | 0. He and his father had been ac cused of murdering a wealthy far ' mer, ! TENNESSEE-—-Gceorge Smith, ac-. 'cused of attempted rape on a 'white girl, was taken from jail and !hnngod to a tree in the courthouse Eyzn'd at Union City, Tenn, in April. % LLOUISIANA-—A mob at Ponte-a lcharged with an assault upon a I-vl;l‘l‘lu(fh\‘. took Oscar Livingstone, !whitc girl, from L. T Fontenelle, {jailer. in August, and riddled his Qbuly with buckshot. | | ARKANSAS - John Parker, ac lvu.wd of killing another man of his jrace, was taken from officers out- I'side Dewitt by O € FIumsden | white farmer, and John Brooks, .n ;Omploye_ and shot to death on the [read in August. % MARYLAND--Matthew Williams, | accused of killing his white em ipluvm', was taken _fl'qm a lmspitvul_ ] at Salisbury, hanged, shot and burn ed by an unmasked mob. l There have been numercus in- | stances in the south where white | officers have exercised courage e- | | ncugh in the face of mobs to save ! | their prisoners. At Huntington, | Tenn., a sheriff's wife challenged a i mob and saved her prisoner. She | was awarded a medal for her & &b!'il\'('!'_\'. At Elberton, Ga.. a whiteg { preacher had the courage to haran { gue the mob in favor of law and | i order after John Downer had been | arrested. ) The use of the term ‘“legal lynch- | iing" has won increased currency { during the year. The term is used [ to describe trials with the life of ; a Negro defendant at stake in which | little attempt to discover his in- § | nocence is made. I (Continued on Page IFouy) : ‘ CUT BY UNKNOWN i Will Favors 952 lyons Allay 1 isaid that he was @ atlacked by 1 | [knifer just a he was leaving his {home shortly after 8 p. m. Sunday | ‘night. He received a deep cut in !the abdomen, which doctors say is | ‘dangerous. Favors declared that he {would not know his attacker as | {he was unable to see his face. He | lcould think of no cause for the at- | tack.