JG Jack to George W. Wickersham
Title
JG Jack to George W. Wickersham
Creator
Jack, JG
Identifier
L031312b
Date
1912 March 11
Description
Letter to the Attorney General of the US suggest the views of African Americans can be obtained from the Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Source
US National Archives and Records Administration
230/06/41 file#158260 box 1276
230/06/41 file#158260 box 1276
Publisher
Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum
Subject
Lynching
Contributor
Althea Cupo
Maria Matlock
Relation
L031312a
Language
English
Coverage
Jamaica Plain, MA
Has Part
"The Crime of Being a Negro"
clipping from pamphlet
clipping from pamphlet
"Opinion on the Reign of Terror"
clipping from pamphlet
clipping from pamphlet
Provenance
Digital copy acquired from federal archives by previous WWPL Archivist, Heidi Hackford.
Text
Attorney General
Washington, D. C.
Dear Sir:
I would respectfully call your attention to the fact that if the present Administration is in earnest about obtaining justice for citizens of the U.S. without respect of race or color or political affiliation much valuable information concerning persecution of colored people may be obtained by applying to the Association for the Adv. of Colored People, 20 Vesey St. New York, as indicated by enclosed circular.
Yours respectfully,
J. G. Jack
THE CRIME OF BEING A NEGRO
ACCUSED OF KNOCKING A WHITE MAN DOWN.
October 20, Manchester, Ga.-- Because he was accused of knocking down a white man last night, Jerry Lovelace, a Negro, was taken from jail at 2 o'clock this morning and lynched. There were about thirty men in the mob.
WOMAN AND CHILD HANGED.
May 6, Okemah, Oklahoma. -- A colored woman accused of having shot a sheriff was taken by a mob and together with her fourteen-year-old son, was hanged from a bridge. The woman was raped before she was hanged.
A NEGRO A DAY KILLED.
November 2, Birmingham, Alabama. -- Four miles north of Birmingham a reign of terror exists. Six white men and eleven Negroes have been assassinated within the past eighteen moths. Six of the Negroes have been killed within the past six days, an average of one a day since last Saturday.
FIVE INNOCENT MEN LYNCHED.
May 20, Lake City, Fla. -- Six men were taken from jail and lynched "for complicity in the murder of a prominent citizen." The lynchers came in automobiles and showed the sheriff's young son, who had been left in charge of the jail, a forged telegram purporting to come from the governor and ordering that the prisoners be given up. On investigation it was found that only one of the six men murdered was even accused of a crime. A quarrel between a white man and a colored man had been brought up before a local court and the colored man had been exonerated. Immediately afterward the white man went into the colored man's yard with a gun. Shots were exchanged and the white man was killed. The colored man gave himself up at once and the five men with him were being held merely as witnesses.
WOUNDED NEGRO BURNED TO DEATH.
August 13, Coatesville, Pa. -- There is no need to repeat the story of the Coatesville horror. You all remember the man who was taken from a bed in the hospital and burned alive for having shot a watchman when drunk. His writhing body was poked back into the flames as he tried to drag himself away. His teeth and charred bones were kept for souvenirs. All arrested for this frolic have been acquitted.
WHAT A JUDGE SAID.
July, Lawrenceville, Ga. -- Judge Chas. H. Brand, of Lawrenceville, Ga., refused to call for troops to protect two Negroes who came before him for trial, one on a charge of an alleged attack on a white woman; the other for "loitering in a suspicious manner."
They were lynched, one taken from a train where he was in charge of two officers; the train stopping while the passengers saw the lynching; the other dragged out of jail by a mob several hundred strong.
Judge Brand defensed his failure to secure a safe guard for the prisoners, saying:
"I don't propose to be the engine of sacrificing any white man's life for all such Negro criminals in the country. * * * I am in perfect accord with my conscience and my God. I would not imperil the life of one white man to save the lives of a hundred such Negroes."
WHAT GOVERNOR BLEASE SAYS.
November 11, Honea Path, S. C. -- Governor Blease of South Carolina says, in regard to a recent lynching in his State, that rather than use the power of his office in deterring white men from "punishing that Nigger brute," he "would have resigned his office and come to Honea Path and led the mob."
In 26 Years, 2,458 Negroes Have Been Lynched
NOT ONE LYNCHER HAS EVER BEEN PUNISHED
Opinion on the Reign of Terror
Columbia, South Carolina State on the Honea Path lynching:
"There has not been a lynching in South Carolina for one crime that has not bred a lynching for other crimes. There has not been a lynching in South Carolina that has not increased the chances of every man, white and black, to die at the hands of a manslayer."
Fort Worth, Texas, Star-Telegram: "First hangings and burnings for the crime against women only; then for murders or assaults to murder; next for arson, forgery and theft; finally on suspicion only of guilt in relation to any of the felonious crimes in the calendar."
Philadelphia Christian Recorder: "What does it all mean? This -- that with each day the value of a Negro's life is less and less in this country. That the policy of those who would not protest against lynching and wrong-doing most vigorously and by every known means is wrong."
Topeka Plain Dealer: "No civilized nation should stand and look at such outrages as are being perpetrated in the United States without saying or doing something."
Some of the 51 Lynchings
Which we have recorded during the last six months -- and there are others.
If you wish to join our protest write to The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, 20 Vesey Street, New York.
Washington, D. C.
Dear Sir:
I would respectfully call your attention to the fact that if the present Administration is in earnest about obtaining justice for citizens of the U.S. without respect of race or color or political affiliation much valuable information concerning persecution of colored people may be obtained by applying to the Association for the Adv. of Colored People, 20 Vesey St. New York, as indicated by enclosed circular.
Yours respectfully,
J. G. Jack
THE CRIME OF BEING A NEGRO
ACCUSED OF KNOCKING A WHITE MAN DOWN.
October 20, Manchester, Ga.-- Because he was accused of knocking down a white man last night, Jerry Lovelace, a Negro, was taken from jail at 2 o'clock this morning and lynched. There were about thirty men in the mob.
WOMAN AND CHILD HANGED.
May 6, Okemah, Oklahoma. -- A colored woman accused of having shot a sheriff was taken by a mob and together with her fourteen-year-old son, was hanged from a bridge. The woman was raped before she was hanged.
A NEGRO A DAY KILLED.
November 2, Birmingham, Alabama. -- Four miles north of Birmingham a reign of terror exists. Six white men and eleven Negroes have been assassinated within the past eighteen moths. Six of the Negroes have been killed within the past six days, an average of one a day since last Saturday.
FIVE INNOCENT MEN LYNCHED.
May 20, Lake City, Fla. -- Six men were taken from jail and lynched "for complicity in the murder of a prominent citizen." The lynchers came in automobiles and showed the sheriff's young son, who had been left in charge of the jail, a forged telegram purporting to come from the governor and ordering that the prisoners be given up. On investigation it was found that only one of the six men murdered was even accused of a crime. A quarrel between a white man and a colored man had been brought up before a local court and the colored man had been exonerated. Immediately afterward the white man went into the colored man's yard with a gun. Shots were exchanged and the white man was killed. The colored man gave himself up at once and the five men with him were being held merely as witnesses.
WOUNDED NEGRO BURNED TO DEATH.
August 13, Coatesville, Pa. -- There is no need to repeat the story of the Coatesville horror. You all remember the man who was taken from a bed in the hospital and burned alive for having shot a watchman when drunk. His writhing body was poked back into the flames as he tried to drag himself away. His teeth and charred bones were kept for souvenirs. All arrested for this frolic have been acquitted.
WHAT A JUDGE SAID.
July, Lawrenceville, Ga. -- Judge Chas. H. Brand, of Lawrenceville, Ga., refused to call for troops to protect two Negroes who came before him for trial, one on a charge of an alleged attack on a white woman; the other for "loitering in a suspicious manner."
They were lynched, one taken from a train where he was in charge of two officers; the train stopping while the passengers saw the lynching; the other dragged out of jail by a mob several hundred strong.
Judge Brand defensed his failure to secure a safe guard for the prisoners, saying:
"I don't propose to be the engine of sacrificing any white man's life for all such Negro criminals in the country. * * * I am in perfect accord with my conscience and my God. I would not imperil the life of one white man to save the lives of a hundred such Negroes."
WHAT GOVERNOR BLEASE SAYS.
November 11, Honea Path, S. C. -- Governor Blease of South Carolina says, in regard to a recent lynching in his State, that rather than use the power of his office in deterring white men from "punishing that Nigger brute," he "would have resigned his office and come to Honea Path and led the mob."
In 26 Years, 2,458 Negroes Have Been Lynched
NOT ONE LYNCHER HAS EVER BEEN PUNISHED
Opinion on the Reign of Terror
Columbia, South Carolina State on the Honea Path lynching:
"There has not been a lynching in South Carolina for one crime that has not bred a lynching for other crimes. There has not been a lynching in South Carolina that has not increased the chances of every man, white and black, to die at the hands of a manslayer."
Fort Worth, Texas, Star-Telegram: "First hangings and burnings for the crime against women only; then for murders or assaults to murder; next for arson, forgery and theft; finally on suspicion only of guilt in relation to any of the felonious crimes in the calendar."
Philadelphia Christian Recorder: "What does it all mean? This -- that with each day the value of a Negro's life is less and less in this country. That the policy of those who would not protest against lynching and wrong-doing most vigorously and by every known means is wrong."
Topeka Plain Dealer: "No civilized nation should stand and look at such outrages as are being perpetrated in the United States without saying or doing something."
Some of the 51 Lynchings
Which we have recorded during the last six months -- and there are others.
If you wish to join our protest write to The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, 20 Vesey Street, New York.
Original Format
Letter
Enclosure
To
Wickersham, George W. (George Woodward), 1858-1936
Files
Collection
Citation
Jack, JG, “JG Jack to George W. Wickersham,” 1912 March 11, L031312b, Race and Segregation Collection, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum, Staunton, Virginia.