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Mob Rule in New Orleans - Robert Charles and His Fight to Death, the Story of His Life, Burning - Human Beings Alive, Other Lynching Statistics by Ida B. Wells-Barnett
page 21 of 73 (28%)
the body sank from view beneath the muddy, slimy water. "Pull him out;
don't let him drown," was the cry, and instantly several of the men
around the half-drowned Negro bent down and drew the body out. Twisting
the body around they drew the head and shoulders up on the street, while
from the waist down the Negro's body remained under the water. As soon
as the crowd saw that the Negro was still alive they again began to beat
and kick him. Every few moments they would stop and striking matches
look into the man's face to see if he still lived. To better see if he
was dead they would stick lighted matches to his eyes. Finally,
believing he was dead they left him and started out to look for other
Negroes. Just about this time some one yelled, "He ain't dead," and the
men came back and renewed the attack. While the men were beating and
pounding the prostrate form with stones and sticks a man in the crowd
ran up, and crying, "I'll fix the d--- Negro," poked the muzzle of a
pistol almost against the body and fired. This shot must have ended the
man's life, for he lay like a stone, and realizing that they were
wasting energy in further attacks, the men left their victim lying in
the street.

The same paper, on the same day, July 26, describes the brutal butchery of
an aged colored man early in the morning:

Baptiste Philo, a Negro, seventy-five years of age, was a victim of mob
violence at Kerlerec and North Peters Streets about 2:30 o'clock this
morning. The old man is employed about the French Market, and was on his
way there when he was met by a crowd and desperately shot. The old man
found his way to the Third Precinct police station, where it was found
that he had received a ghastly wound in the abdomen. The ambulance was
summoned and he was conveyed to the Charity Hospital. The students
pronounced the wound fatal after a superficial examination.
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