Southern Horrors - Lynch Law in All Its Phases by Ida B. Wells-Barnett
page 16 of 34 (47%)
page 16 of 34 (47%)
|
grown women who were glad enough to be supported by the Grizzard boys and
Ed Coy, as long as the liaison was not known, needed protection; they were white. The outrage upon helpless childhood needed no avenging in this case; she was black. A white man in Guthrie, Oklahoma Territory, two months ago inflicted such injuries upon another Afro-American child that she died. He was not punished, but an attempt was made in the same town in the month of June to lynch an Afro-American who visited a white woman. In Memphis, Tenn., in the month of June, Ellerton L. Dorr, who is the husband of Russell Hancock's widow, was arrested for attempted rape on Mattie Cole, a neighbors cook; he was only prevented from accomplishing his purpose, by the appearance of Mattie's employer. Dorr's friends say he was drunk and not responsible for his actions. The grand jury refused to indict him and he was discharged. 3 _The_ NEW CRY The appeal of Southern whites to Northern sympathy and sanction, the adroit, insiduous plea made by Bishop Fitzgerald for suspension of judgment because those "who condemn lynching express no sympathy for the _white_ woman in the case," falls to the ground in the light of the foregoing. From this exposition of the race issue in lynch law, the whole matter is |
|