MORE SENA
TORS BEHIND
LYNCH BILL
Continuous Pressure Needed
To Get Hill To Vote As
As Passage Seems Assur
ed Once It Is Up; White
House Said To Favor
Washington. April 23— Continous
pressure on each senator is the cry
need for the passage of the Costigan
Wagner ant- lynching bill.
Voters should write their senators
asking them to becme active in getting
the bill up for a vote as well as voting
for it once it edmes up. A new tab
ulation of senators here yesterday
showed that without a doubt the bill
can be passed if it is brought up
The edge has been taken off the
bitter fight which southern senators
would have waged upon it by the
growng sentiment in the South, and
especially the resolution of the power
ful Woman’s Missionary Council of
the Methodist Episcopal Church,
South, which passed a resolution
March 12 unanimously endorsing the
ill.
Senator Bonnet C- Clark of Miss
ouri has written the St Louis branch
of the N. A- A. C- P : “I am heartly
in favor of the proposed anti-lynch
ing bill."
Senator L. J- Dickinson has writ
ten the Des Moines N. A- A- C- P.
branch: “If the Costigan-Wagner
bill comes to a vote I expect to vote
for it”
Both of these Senators were re
cently reported as opposed to the
bill
Oswald Garrison Villard has writ
ten thirteen senators askng them to
vote for the bill and has received de
finite pledges thus far from half of
them that they will vote for the bill.
Senator Nye of North Dakota writes
“I shall give the bill my most earnest
support.”
Senator Shipstead of Minnesota
writes: “I expect to support it.”
Senator Cutting of Arizona writes:
“I intend to vote for the Costigan
Wagner anti-lynching bill.”
Senator David Walsh of Massachu
setts writes: “I am in strong sympathy
with the Costigan-Wagner bill. I
have always supported anti-lynching
bills.”
It is understood here that the'
White House favors the passage of
the bill. Telegrams and letters to
President Roosevelt asking him to
insist to the leaders of Congress that
the bill be passed before Congress
adjourns will be exxeeedingly helpful
at this stage of the fight
DARROW BOOK
IN CHEAPER
EDITION
New York, April 22—Charles
Scribner’s Sons has just released a
popular edition of Clarence Darrow’s j
“The Story of My Life” to sell at $1- j
The book contains a chapter on the
famous Sweet trial in Detroit and the
eneral problem of the Negro in the
North.
LONG BATTLE WON FOR
MEN WHO DEFENDED
HOME
New York. April 20—A fight for the
lives of three Negro workers of La
gardo, Tenn- that began in September
1932, has ended victoriously after
twice taking the cases to the Tennes
see supreme court, according to an
announcement fTom the office of the
National Association for the Advance
ment of Colored People today.
The three workers, Jake and Char
lie Alexander and George Benton
Oldham, were convicted of first de
gree murder at Lebanon, Tenn- on
January 4, 1933, for the murder of
Constable Ben L- Northern and De
puty M- E- Brown who attempted
to arrest them on the evening of
September 4, 1932, with a blank war
rant and the assistance of a white
mob, following an altercation between
a white and a Negro family.
The two Alexanders were sentenced
to life imprisonment and Oldham was
given twenty-five years- A fourth
defendent was acquitted
The cases were appealed to the
state supreme court on July 19,1933,
reversed the sentences and recommend
«d a nerw trial holding that the men
were not guilty of murder in the
first degree, but had merely defended
their homes from a mob
At the second tral in Lebanon,
Teim-, August 30 to September 4,
1933 George Oldham was acquitted,
Jake Alexander was convicted of “in
voluntary manslaughter” and give®
three years, while Charlie Alexander,,
his son, was convicted of “second de
gree murder” and sentenced to twelve
years
Again the cases were carried back
to the state supreme court- On April
5, 1934 it affirmed the verdict Jake
Alexander, but cut the sentence to
one year, while reducing that of
Charle Alexxander from one to five
years- The men are even now eligible
for parole and efforts are being made
to have them freed at once
Almost Lynched
A history of the case reveals the
extent of the victory scered by the
Association’s lawyer, Jesse Cantrell,
a whte Watertown, Ttnn. attorney
When the accused Negroes were taken
from Lagardo to Lebanon, Tenn-, a
bloodthirsty mob swarmed around the
jail demanding that the black work
ers be turned over to them- The de
fen dents were hdden under the jail
floor and could hear footsteps of the
mob above them- When the delega
from the mob had left, assured that
the prisoners were not in the jail,
the Negroes were spirited away in
cars to Nashville for safekeeping
The mob angered, continued to swarm
about thie jail, tearing off screens and
breaking in doors- Two Negro wo
men prisoners were taken out and
would have been lynched bu$ for the
pleas of two young white students
ihe natonal guard finally dispersed
the mob of 8.000. The sheriff’s wife
was injured and at one time a race
roit threatened
N. A- A. C- P- Support Secret
Because of threats against the life
of Attorney Cantrell by a relative of
one of the deceased white men and
the bitter feeling the cases arouse in
Lebanon, the National Association for
the Advancement of Colored People
kept secret the fact that it backing
the defense of the Negro workers
This policy was justified by events
During the trials the courtroom was
crowded by a desperate mob of whites
eager for the conviction or lynching
of the defendants
The cost ofo the two trials and the
hearings before the state supreme
court was $310 to which fund the N.
A. A- C- P- contributed $150, the In
terracial Commission of Atlanta $55,
the rest being raised by interested
Nashville white and colored citizens
headed by Prof- Albert E- Barnett
of Scaritt, Nashville, who lent every
assistance to the case from the time
of the threatened lynching 18 months
ago
BATTERING ON
BARRIERS OF
PREJUDICE
Stirring chapters From the
25-yOar History of the Na
tional Association for the
Advancement of Colored
People
Fighting for the Negro Farijners
In the last article we dealt specific
ally with Association’s war on lynch
ing during the quarter century of its
j existence. In this article we shall
sketch briefly the long fight waged
by the Association for justice and
fair play for Negro farmers, with
emphasis on the famous Elaine, Ar
kansas case of 1919-1923
Fights “Agricultural Contracts”
Before the Association was a year
old it took up with Governor Martin
F- Ansel of South Carolina the ques
tion of a pardon for Pink Franklin.
Negro plantation hand who had vio
lated a so-called “agricultural con- j
tract” and two months later had shot
the White constable sent to arrest j
him, when the latter broke into his
cabin at three o’clock in the morning
without announcing that he was an j
officer. Due to the Association’s ef
forts Franklin won a commutation of
sentence. It also waged a hard
fight the same year for the life of,
Steve Greene. Arkansas sharecropper,
who shot his boss in self defense
when the latter sought to make him
renew his lease at an advance of
almost 100 per cent in rent
Durng the “Work or Fight” drive
in 1918 an effort was made by the j
white authorities at PineBluff, Ark.,'
to force colored woman to work in j
the cotton fields at wages below the
standard rate- The Little Rock
branch of the Association immediately
organized^ ai)| opposition campaign,
mobolizing the Negroes of the vicin
ity and stopped this vicious form of
exploitation before it got well started.
The National office investigated and
exposed the whole “Work or Fight”
system as it was worked in the South
and its expose was one of the fac
tors in stopping the scheme.
Perhaps the most notable fight
waged by the Association in behalf
of the embattled Southern Negro
farmers was the now famous Elaine
Sharecropper Case, which gained
world-wide attention and) ended in
one of the Associations most out
standing victories.
Negro Tenants Organize
Sixty-eight exploiting Negro ten
ants of Phillips County. Arkansas,
unable to get any settlement from the
plantaton owners on whose places they
slaved, organized the Progressive
Farmers and Labor Household Union
of America, incorporated under the
laws of Arkansas- The union's lit
erature stated its purpose as that of
“advancing the intellectual, material,
moral, spiritual and financial inter
ests of the Negro race."
The firm of Bratton and Bratton,
white lawyers of Little Rock, Ark
ansas was employed by the union
either to secure a voluntary settle
ment frqm the plantation owners or
to bring suits in the courts, as the
firm had done in many other simi
lar cases. The meeting with the legal
representative was to be held at Ratio,
Arkansas, early inOCtober 1949.
Meantime, Negro farmers were
meeting in a little church near Hoop
Spur, a small settlement ten miles
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away. W. D. Adkins, special agent
of the Missouri Pacific Railway, drove
up to the church in an automobile,
accompanied by a deputy sherriff.
They fired into the church. The
Negroes returned fire and Adkins was
killed.
Hell Breaks Loose
Then hell broke loose in Phillips
County. A “Committee of Seven”
consisting of the county judge, the
mayor of Elaine, the sheriff and four
others, allegedly planters took down
charge of affairs.organizing the mob
which secured the county shooting
shooting down Negroes indiscrimin
ately. Word was sent out that Ne
groes were uprising and “massacare
ing the whites.” The Govenor hur
ried to the county with a militia.
Federal troops from Camp Pike were
dispatched to stop the “massacre of
the white people.”It is significant
that this “massacre of whites” re
sulted in the death of five white and
fifty Negroes. Among the Negroes
klled were the four Johnson brothers,
one a dentist and property owner in
Helena, another a prominent Okla
homa physician visiting Helena, who
were turning from a squirrel hunt
when they met the bloodthirsty Vnob.
Eight hundred Negroes were round
ed up like cattle by the state and fed
eral troops and 200 of them petnned
in a stockade. Within a month after
wards 79 of these Negroes were put
on trial at Heena. The trials lasted
five days. Twelve were condemned
to death and 67 were sentenced from
twenty-one years to life. Many of
them were tortured to force confes
sions. In the case of five of those
tried, the jury brought i» a verdict
of guilty after but six minutes de
liberation. The trial counsel provid
ed the court did not consult the accus
ed Negroes, put no witnesses oon the
stand and did not address the jury in
behalf of their supposed clients. The
whole affair was a gross miscarriage
of justice.
N A A C P To The Rescue
The Association’s legal department
immediately got busy. Colonel Geo.
i W. Murphy (white) and Sciopio A.
Jones of Little Rock, Ark., were re
tained as defense counsel. On Mari.
29. 1920, the supreme court of Ar
kansas reversed the verdict of death
of the Phillips county circuit court
in the cases of the six of the tvelve
condemned men, the other six were
found guilty. Again the caSes were
taken to the Arkansas supreme court
and again the county court was re
versed on December 6, 1920,on the
ground that Negroes had been exclud
ed from juries in Phillips county in
contravention of the Fourteenth
Amendment and Civl Rights Act of
1875 The execution of the second
six men was held up pending the
outcome of the third trial of the
first six At this time Colonel Mur
phy died and the burden of handling
the cases fell upon the capable
shoulders of his colored associate,
Scipio A. Jones.
On March 23, 1921 the Association
defeated the efforts of the Arkansas
authorities to extradite Robert L
Hill. head of the Progressive Farm
ers and Household Union of Ameri
ca, who had been arrested in Tope
ka, Kans-, whence he had fled fol
lowing the Phillips county race war
The state of Arkansas persisted in
its efforts to get Hill, but at every
turn the Assiciation’s legal defense
blocked the way- Finally, after sev
eral unsuccessful maneuvers by Ar
kansas in the federal courts, At
torney Jones was able to wire the
National office: “Both cases in the
federal court against Hill have been
dismissed by order of the Attorney
general”
On April 20, U921, Governor McRae
of Arkansas set June 10 as the exe
cution date for the second six of the
convicted sharecroppers- When he
refused appeals to stay execution un
til the conclusion of the trials of the
first six men, the Association’s law
yers won a restraining order which
was set aside when Arkansas auth
orities applied for and obtained a
writ of prohibition dissolving it,
from the state supreme court- The
N. A. A. C. P. attorneys then
moved for a writ of habeas corpus in
the federal court.
Win Change of Venue
When the first six condemned men
again went to trial in May, the As
sociations attorneys applied for and
got, after a studied delay of six
weeks, a change of venue to Lee
county on June 21- Trials were set
for October in Marianna
Every legal device was used by
the Arkansas authorities to wreck
vengeance upon these unfortunate
victims of exploitation and mob
frenzy- At every turn they found
themselves thwarted by the Associa
tion’s attorneys. Reversal followed
trial, legal points were urged to the
highest court of the land, disappoint
ment followed apparent victory, hopes
rose only to be dashed again.
On January 9- 1923, Moorfield
Storey, the Association’s president
argued the case of the six condemned
men before the United States Su
preme court alleging that such or
ganizations as local rotary clubs,
American legion posts, and the courts
had sought to railroad the Negro
farmers to death, that the rioting
had been begun by whites, that the
farm workers had been fasely ac
cused of organizing to “massacre
I whites” and on this pretext hund
reds of unoffending Negro workers
had been hunted down like beasts
by armed whites
N. A. A- C- P. Wins Workers’
Release.
As a result of the Association’s
brilliant plea, the United States su
preme court on February 19, 1923.
federal district court to inquire into
condemned workers and directed the
federal district court to inquie into
the cases and ascertain if the ac
cused black farmers had had a fair
trial- This decision (More vs Demp
sey 261 U- S- 86) was epoch making
in that it not only declared that a
trial dominated by mob sentiment
was not due process of law, but re
versed the U- S- supreme court it
self in its decision in the Leo Frank
case
Flabbergasted by this decision, the
Arkansas authorities rather than re
try the men, offered a compromise of
a plea of gulty on a lesser charge,
which was accepted by Attorney
Jones- On November 11, 1923, Gov
ernor McRae commuted the sentences
of the men, leaving them eligible
for parole within a short time
On June 25- 1923, the Arkansas
supreme court ordered the discharge
from custody of the second six de
fendants, who, following reversal of
their previous sentences had been
rte-convicted and re-sentenced to
death.
As a result of these victories
which snatched twelve farm workers
from death, the Association was
able to secure the release of all the
others- The men were turned loose
at the prison gate, but N- A- A- C- P-1
attorneys were on hand and rushed
th<*m to Little Rock* by automobile,
furnshed them transportation to the
North where they found work
This victory, which cost the As
sociation $15,000 brought dramatical
ly to the attention of the entire
country the vicious exploitation of
Negro sharecroppers in the South
and exposed the methods of the
Southern planter class in using the
lynch terror to prevent the farm
workers from oganizing- This deci
sion won by the billiant Negro and
white lawyers of the National As
sociation for the Advancement of
Colored People n the United States
Supreme Court stands as a protec
tion for black and white workers
who may there after be tried under
the condtions which surrounded the
Negro peons of Arkansas
Prof. Holmes Named Dean
of New Graduate School.
Washington D- C-—(CNS)—Dean
Dwight 0- W- Holmes, of the School
of Education at Howard University
has been selected as the first dean
of the new graduate school, his du
ties to begin July 1. when the school
of education will he merged with the
College of liberal Arts
The semi-annual meeting of the
Trustee Board took place at the Uni
versity Tuesday April 10 when the
following trustees were elected for
three years, Dr. Jacob Billekopf, of
FPhiladelphia, Dr- Walter Gray
Crump, New York- Dr. Abram Flex
ner, New Cork, Thomas F- Hungate,
Columba University. New York, P- B
Young. Norfolk, and Victor B- Dey
ber. Dr- Charles H- Garvin alumni
trustee was elected a regular board
member, succeeding Rolfe B- Cob
leigbt, Boston, deceased- George E
Bell of Montclair, New Jersey, was
elected alumni trustee
Acting Dean L- B- Downing, of the
present college of applied sciences,
was elected dean of an educational
division, separately organized and ad
ministered, to be known as the school
of engineering and architecture- This
school will include instruction in ar
chitecture, civil, electrical and me
chanical enginnering- *
The school of engineering will con
fine its work to an undergraduate
program until such time as graduate
instruction in engineering may be
given at Howard- Graduates will be
directed to other institutions for ad
vanced work.
The deanship of the college «f
dentistry was awarded to acting Dean
Russell, A Dixon- The board adopt
ed a budget covering activities of the
year 1934-35 and a retirement systdm
for administrative officers and the
professional staff
Mute Princeton Bootblack
Prince of Rooters For
Princeton.
Princeton, N- J—(CNS)—Fifteen
years ago Elias Scudder, a deaf mute
walked to the barber shop of Jack
I Honore here wearing the following
sign on his baek:
“I don’t want to go to war- Please
give me a job ” He obtained one and
has become the mascot of Princeton
in all athletic contests.
Scudder, whose periodic frenzies
over the cause of Tiger football
teams has made him, the mascot of
Princeton students, has for the last
ten years refused a standing offer
to regain the use of his tongue by a
free and safe operation- He is con-1
vinced that if he had the normal use j
of his tongue and ears he would not i
be so popular with university stu- j
dents
I In recent years Scudder has had
a pass to all athletic contest here and
his face is always present wherever
Princeton rooting waxes hottest
The Nassau mascot’s attendance at
all athletic events which he can get
leave of absence for has often carried
him away from town- Last fall he
witnessed the Yale-Princeton football
game at New Haven, and next year
he expects to journey to Cambridge
for the Princeton-Harvard contest
The hat rack at Honore’s shop is
made out of a large piece of the Yale
goalpost which Scudder assisted
Princeton students in uprooting after
the 25-12 Tiger victory of 1925
The deaf mute is famed for his
hilarious pantomine, and his name is
also connected with innumerable ex
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HOME OF KANGAROO COURT
ploits of Princeton men- In 1926,
following the Earl Carroll bathtub
party, Scudder was borne abount
Princeton in a bathtub by members
of the class of ’21 celebrating its
fifth anniversary.
Nancy Cunard’s ‘The Negro’
An Anthology Banned
As Seditious.
New York City—(CNS)—The
banning of “The Negro.” an antholo
gy recently written by Nancy Cunard
of the famous shipping family, as
proclaimed is a proclamation publish
ed in the Royal Gazette of Port of
Spain. Trinidad, April 10, is causing
much conlment he. e.
Miss Cunard wrote the book after
a study of life in Harlem,Jamaica and
the East End of Londay. The proc
lamation says: “Whereas the Gov
ernor and the Executive Council are
of the opinion that the Negro antho
logy is a seditious publication,
“Thei*efore, I, Alfred Claud Hollis,
Governor aforesaid, do prohibit the
importation into this conoly of said
publication.”
The Executive Council includes
two Negroes both eminent lawyers
Copious extracts from the book
have already been published in some
West Indian newspapers, and is now
being quoted throughout the United
States.
RECORD OF SOUTH IS
AGAINST JUDGE GRADY
REPLY OF N A A C P
New York, April 23—The record of
the South is against the assertion of
Judge Henry W- Grady of Raleigh,
N. C. that “ it is a lie that Negroes
cannot get a fair trial in a southern
White man’s cvdurt,” said a statemen
issued by the National Association
for the Advancement of ColooreH
•People here today. The jridee is
also reported as saying the N. A. A.
C. P. “made him sick”. The N. A.
A. C. P. cited an editorial in the
Murfreesboro (Tenn.) Daily News
Journal entitled “All Guilty But Only
the Black die,” which declared: “May
bethis (electric) ehail is being saved
only for those who happen to be bom
black. If the slayers of Patrolman
Sanders had been black instead of
whte, they, too. would have walked
the last mile this morning.”
The association cited also the Miss
issippi state law which makes rob
bei-y with firearms a capital offense
regardless of whether any person is
killed or injured and stated that to
date only Negroes had bben prosecut
ed under its provisions
N. A. A. C. P. SUPPORTS
BILL TO AID PULLMAN
PORTERS
New York, April f3—The National
Association for the Advancement of
Colored People has assured A. Philip
Randolph, president of the Brother
hood of Sleeping Car Porters that it
iwll do everything within ibs power
to aid the passage of Senate Bill 2411,
to amend the Emergency Railroad
Transportation Act, 1933, to include
Pullman porters and maids within its
provisions.
At present the Pullman Company
is not included in the NTtA and yet
escapes the provisions of the Emerg
encyRailroad Transportation Act of
1933. The proposed Bill S. 2411
would include the Pullman Company
iri the latter act. thus classifying
Pullman porters and maids with othe
railroad workers in the adjustment of
wages and working conditions. At
present they are completely out of
the picture and have no tribunal to
which tbe ran carrv their grievances.
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