Assistant Attorney General LaRue Brown to Mrs. Eva B. Davis

Title

Assistant Attorney General LaRue Brown to Mrs. Eva B. Davis

Creator

Brown, LaRue, 1883-1969

Identifier

TI00249d

Date

1918 June 27

Description

Explaining that a Supreme Court case prevents the Department of Justice from taking any action in the matter of lynching and mob violence.

Source

National Archives and Records Administration 230/06/41 file #158260 box #1276 NARA ID #58

Publisher

Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library

Subject

African-Americans--segregation

Language

English

Text

Mrs. Eva B. Davis,
12 Phillips Street,
Watertown, Massachusetts.

Madam:

Your letter of the 10th instant to the President of the United States, relative to the lynching of negroes by mobs in the several States, has been referred to this Department. Many such complaints are referred here, but the obstacle which prevents this Department from taking any action in regard to the matter is that the Supreme Court of the United States in the case of Hodges v. United States, 203 U. S. 1, held that the Federal Government had no power under the Constitution to interfere in the protection of the fundamental rights of citizens of the several States. The court held that the matter was purely one for State control, but that Federal control over it was not justified by the Constitution of the United States.

Respectfully,
For the Attorney General,
(Signed) LaRue Brown
Assistant Attorney General.

Original Format

Letter

Files

T100249d.pdf

Citation

Brown, LaRue, 1883-1969, “Assistant Attorney General LaRue Brown to Mrs. Eva B. Davis,” 1918 June 27, TI00249d, Race and Segregation Collection, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum, Staunton, Virginia.