The lynching of the six men in 1894, barbarous as it was, was in no way
more barbarous than took nothing more than a passing notice. It was only
the other lynchings which preceded it, and of which the public fact that
the attention of the civilized world has been called to lynching in
America which made the people of Tennessee feel the absolute necessity for
a prompt, vigorous and just arraignment of all the murderers connected
with that crime. Lynching is no longer "Our Problem," it is the problem of
the civilized world, and Tennessee could not afford to refuse the legal
measures which Christianity demands shall be used for the punishment of
crime.


MEMPHIS THEN AND NOW

Only two years prior to the massacre of the six men near Memphis, that
same city took part in a massacre in every way as bloody and brutal as
that of September last. It was the murder of three young colored men and
who were known to be among the most honorable, reliable, worthy and
peaceable colored citizens of the community. All of them were engaged in
the mercantile business, being members of a corporation which conducted a
large grocery store, and one of the three being a letter carrier in the
employ of the government. These three men were arrested for resisting an
attack of a mob upon their store, in which melee none of the assailants,
who had armed themselves for their devilish deeds by securing court
processes, were killed or even seriously injured. But these three men were
put in jail, and on three or four nights after their incarceration a mob
of less than a dozen men, by collusion with the civil authorities, entered
the jail, took the three men from the custody of the law and shot them to
death. Memphis knew of this awful crime, knew then and knows today who the
men were who committed it, and yet not the first step was ever taken to