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ARTICLE XIV, CONSTITUTION OF THE }.
; UNITED STATES j[
Citizenship Rights Not to Be Abridged |
1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, •{•
; and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the |
; United States and of the State wherein they reside. No Y
i state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the f
! privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor %
; Stall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or prop- x
erty without due process of law, nor deny to any person ?
! within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
' lOBOOOBBBBBBOSOeeoeSSOSSSOSSSeOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSS
DOES THIS SHOCK YOU?
“DAMN the United States, I’M
going to get out of it as soon as I
can and raise my family in a coun
try that is civilized. I’m going to
South America.”
It was a Negro in his late thirties,
who is a graduate of two of the best
colleges in America, one an eastern
college where he took his degree in
liberal arts, and another in the mid
dle west where he has taken his pro
fessional training, who made this
fierce outburst upon reading of a
brutal lynching in the South. More
over, he is a man who earned a com
mission and served with distinction
in the American Expeditionary
Forces abroad in the recent World
War. He is successful in his pro
fession, a home owner and a real
worth-while citizen.
He continued: “It isn’t only out
rages of this character that make
me hot, but it is the thousand and
one insults to which we are subject
ed in this country, to which we have
given our best, and things seem to
grow worse instead of better. The
sham and hypocrisy of America
make me sick.”
Is this young man’s outburst
against the United States justified?
What do you think about it? Do
you think he would be really hap
pier in South America?
Another young man, not yet twen
ty, a student in one of our leading
western universities, where he ranks
high in scholarship and athlitics and
is well liked, plans to complete his
studies at Yale, and devote himself
to a literary career. He has his eye
on Europe.
“When I complete my course at
Yale, I intend to go abroad, where
one’s race or color does not count
against him, but where one stands
on his merit and ability to produce
the goods.”
He made this remark quietly and
without any show of feeling or re
sentment. He is a youth of fine
character, high ideals and a winning
personality.
Do you think he is right?
Our advice to him was this:
“Fight it out here, my young
friend. You can win out here de
spite the apparent handicap, which
I do not under-rate. The entrance
of our people into the literary
world, the acceptance of manuscripts
by the best magazine of the coun
try, are most hopeful signs and are
mornings which give promise of a
glorious day. Fight it out here.
America, which has been the scene
of the Negro’s deepest degradation,
will be the scene of his greatest tri
umph and exaltation.”
You man not agree with us, but
with the young men quoted above.
We would like to have your opin
ion.
COMMON LAW MARRIAGES
One of the great evils of our
community is the prevalence of
“common law’’ marriages among
both races People do not seem to
realize that for a man and woman to
live together out of wedlock is sin
ful and immoral. Police records
show that many of the tragedies
which have been enacted in Omaha
have been among these common law
couples. There ought to be some
legislative enactments which would
forbid such associations. If a man
and a woman love each other, and
there is no impediment or barrier to
their conjugal union, then they ought
to be honorably and lawfully mar
ried, or else they ought not live to
gether as man and wife. Such co
haabitation is sinful and wrong,
whether the state permits it or not.
It may be that some people do not
know any better. People who want
to be decent and considered as de
cent and respectable should be hon
orably and lawfully married. “Com
mon law marriages," in many of the
states, are treated as adulterous
unions with a heavy penalty attach
ed. Such should be the law in Ne
braska.
A STREAK OF DAWN
That a Georgia judge was had the
courage to sentence nine men to
terms in penitentiary for terms of
from four years to life for lynch
ing a man, is a hopeful sign- True,
the victim was a white man; had he
been black it is doubtful that any
sentence would have been imposed.
Be that as it may, a beginning has
been made and a precedent set which
will eventually demand punishment
for the lynching of a Negro in
Georgia. It is a streak of dawn.
THE WEEK’S EDITORIALS
I.
UP TO GOVERNOR McLEOD
(From The Constitution, Atlanta,
Ga., Nov. 12, 1926)
What is the Governor of South
Carolina going to do about the re
cent lynching of three Negroes, one
of whom was at woman, at Aiken?
It is a pertinent question and the
entire nation is awaiting the answer.
Governor McLeod does not con
done lynching. No self respecting,
law abiding wh|)e man in South Car
olina—or in the nation, for that mat
ter—can possibly condone lynching.
And yet, for some reason or an
other, this disgraceful act of mob
violence has not been avenged, nor
has any definite action been report
ed.
The law that was crucified by a
masked gang of white men, whose
names, it is said, are known, and
whose affiliation with a secret order
has been openly charged and not de
nied, has not reached out to bring
to the bar of justice those who de
fied it.
And who, in defying it, struck at
the very foundation of our system of
government, and made a mockery of
constitutional authority.
The lynching of the three Negroes
at Aiken was one of the most das
tardly crimes ever committed in this
country. The more reprehensible it'
was because of the undenied charges
that several officers of the law eith
er took an active part or looked pas
sively on while the mob wrought its
vengeance upon a trio of helpless,
terrorized human beings whose guilt,
even, of the charge of murder that
had been preferred against them was
seriously in question. One of the
victims, indeed, had been discharged,
after a fair and impartial trial, on
account of the lack of any evidence
of guilt, even circumstantial.
The execution of the lynching was
of the most brutal type. Ropes were
fastened tightly around their bodies,
according to report, and they were
dragged for many a mile behind
rapidly moving automobiles. Then
they were riddled with bullets to end
their agonizing cries.
In the black days of inquisition
greater barbarity in human persecu
tion was not resorted to.
An official of the National Asso
ciation for the Advancement of Col
ored People has made an exhaustive
investigation of the lynching and has
furnished Governor McLeod with a
list of names of people of the Aiken
community that he alleges were guil
ty of the outrage. Among them is
the name of the Sheriff, the one of
ficial who was charged, by virtue of
office, with the sacred duty of en
forcing the law, and preserving the
integrity of the judiciary system.
Whether those cited are guilty or
not is not the question for the pub
lic to decide. That is the duty and
the function of the court.
The public, however, is concerned
and vitally—in the most import
ant question as to whether South
Carolina will allow this brutal affair
to fade into history without every
legal recourse open to law enforce
ment being engaged vigorously to
make the guilty pay a just debt to
society.
> ~mSM
There was a lynching recently in
Douglas county, Georgia—the first
and only one of the year. Judge
Harry Reed of that circuit convened
the grpnd jury, and sixteen indict
ments were promptly brought, and
the accused as promptly arrested and
jailed. Their trial is set for an early
date.
South Carolina should show an
equal respect for the law.
SOUTH CAROLINA’S SHAME
(From The Nation, New York City,
November 17, 1926)
To Walter White, Assistant Secre
tary of the National Association for
the Advancement of Colored People,
goes the credit for unearthing one
of the ghastliest Btories in Ameri
can history. This young man, who
has already distinguished himself in
various Southern States by investi
gating race riots and lynchings that
reflected discredit on local and state
officials, went down to Aiken, S. C.,
alone, to find himself in the most
lawless and brutal district that he
had ever visited. The result of his
investigation he communicated to
Governor McLeod in a letter that
might well have scorched His Hon
or’s hands as he held it. Reminding
the Governor of his promise to “do
everything in my power to get at the
truth in this matter and to fix the
guilt upon the proper parties,” Mr.
White furnished details of the lynch
ing, and ended with a list of names,
occupations and addresses of a score
of men who took part in it.
The data which Mr. White gather
ed in his courageous and careful
search can, he declared, be amply
substantiated by various citizens of
Aiken whenever the Governor will
guarantee them immunity from the
wrath of the Ku Klux Klan. Ac
cording to Mr. White, the Klan engi
neered the lynching, and effectively
controls the community. But the
state militia is at the Governor’s call.
The good name of South Carolina is
in shadow; protection can be fur
nished if Governor McLeod wants it.
A law-abiding and industrious
family of Negroes, the Lowmans,
were accused of selling whiskey. A
sheriff and four deputies, in plain
clothes and with nothing to disting
uish them as officers of the law, ap
proaching the Lowman house, terri
fied the mother and her daughter,
and brought about a fracas in which
the mother was killed, the daughter,
Bertha, and a son, Clarence, seri
ously wounded by gunshots; another
son, Demon, shot but not seriously
hurt, and the sheriff killed. Seven
teen days after the affair five of the
Lowmans were put on trial for mur
dar, with lawyers for the defense ap
pointed by the judge. Bertha, De
mon and Clarence were found guilty,
and were sentenced to death, and
the girl to imprisonment for life.
So outrageous was this trial that
a Negro lawyer in South Carolina
was able to present to the State
Supreme Court a brief that resulted
in a new trial. At the second hear
ing of the case, Demon was found
noa guility. Within one hour of the
reversal of the verdict persons as
far away as Columbia knew that the
Lowmans would be lynched that
night. And they were.
Mr. White, in his extraordinary
story, which is now being substantial
ly repeated by The New York World,
charges that, far from being over
powered, Sheriff Nellie Robinson
opened the prison doors and helped
to drag Bertha Lowman downstairs
to her death. Officials of the law
and relatives of high South Carolina
1 officials were present at the bestial
lynching. Here is the real shame of
the South. Not that a bunch of
hoodlums disguised in sheets and
pillow cases can carry off a defense
less Negro and kill him, but that of
ficers of the law, sworn to uphold
the law, too often actually aid the
murderers of the prisoners they have
sworn to protect. The Governor of
South Carolina is faced with a task
which he cannot shirk. He must
prove these charges false or he must
bring the guilty persons to justice.
Else he stamps himself as unworthy
of his office and his State as un
worthy of the Union.
The Community Chest gives the Com
munity a soul and God knows she needs it.
NEW NEED FOR A FEDERAL
ANTI-LYNCHING LAW
By Norman Thomas
(For the Associated Negro Press)
Lynchings, which in the last two
years have shown a gratifying de.
cline, are again on the way up in the
United States. One of the most hor
rible crimes fn recent years was the
triple lynching of three Negroes in
South Carolina. These victims were
taken from the jail and killed, al
though one of them had just been
declared innocent after trial, and the
other two, one a woman, had been
granted a new trial. It is alleged that
the police officers were accomplices
in this crime. The public authorities
of South Carolina were as usual do
ing nothing until Walter White of the
National Association for the Advance
ment of Colored People and later the
New York World goaded them into
action. It is yet too soon to predict
that there is courage enough and
decency enough in South Carolina to
bring the lynchers to justice.
Not to be behind hand in crime
Texas reports a triple lynching for
reasons unknown. Two of the victims
—a man and his wife—were burned to
death in their cabin. This in the coun
try of the fundamentalists who pride
themselves on their religious zeal.
In view of these facts and others
like them, it’s high time to revive agi
tation for a Federal anti-lynching law.
It would, of course, have been better
if the states had taken care of this
matter. A Federal law will not be
self-enforcing. Nevertheless, if Amer
ican citizenship means anything it
means the right to life as against the
mob. The United States is bound to
guarantee that to its Negro citizens.
Undoubtedly the previous agitation
for the Dyer anti-lynching bill in
Congress was partly responsible for
the improvement in the South. This
time support should be given to the
bill in dead earnest. There fs no
room for sectional feeling in this
matter, nor can the North in view of
its own race riots assume a holier
than-thou attitude. All of us as de.
cent citizens must get together to
remove from the United States a dis
grace which is not shared by the most
backward peoples on the earth.
The Community Chest gives the Com
munity a soul and God knows she needs it.
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N. W. WARE
ATTORNEY AT LAW
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1106 Dodge Street, Omaha, Nebraska
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LLLlLkJ MANY YEARS OF SUCCESS.
THOUSANDS PERMANENTLY CURED by Dr. B. R Tarry'.
otheV^ctaKIUDiaae«ea me,h°d °f CUr’nR P‘,e*' Flatula
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