1939: Lynchings

The lowest number of lynchings since records began to be kept in 1882 occurred during 1939 when only five were recorded. There was considerable evidence during the year, however, that the great amount of unfavorable publicity given to the states where lynchings had been most frequent, by the filibuster in the United States Senate during 1938 against passage of an anti-lynching bill, played a very large part in this decline. There were indications that lynching had gone underground. Investigation of the lynching of Joe Rodgers at Canton, Miss., on May 8, by an experienced and responsible investigator revealed a new technique — of the mob delegating to a committee of 30 or 40 men the duty of taking the victim to a nearby woods or swamps and there disposing of him. Successful efforts were made to keep out of the newspapers any news of such mob executions. It was revealed by this investigator that at least four such lynchings occurred in the vicinity of Canton, Miss., during the first four months of 1939.

Another important factor in the reduction of the number of lynchings or in the suppression of news about them was the increased efforts during the year of governors, chambers of commerce and others in Southern states to induce industries to move their plants, particularly in the field of textiles, to Southern states. In some instances there was reluctance to move plants to the South as long as lynchings continued, because that disturbed the labor supply and endangered property.

In other ways the lynching spirit was made more manifest during 1939. The Ku Klux Klan and similar organizations were revived in Florida, South Carolina and other states ostensibly to oppose 'Communist' and C.I.O. activities. In many parts of the South, particularly in rural areas, any efforts by any group to better living and other conditions were labeled 'Communist.'

In Greenville, S. C., and Miami, Fla., the Klan was very active in trying to intimidate Negroes who were seeking to qualify, register and vote. These efforts, however, were not only futile in some instances, but, in Miami, resulted in a trebling of the Negro vote.