1941: Lynchings

Five known lynchings during 1941 brought the grim total since 1882 to 5,134 — 1,456 of them of white persons and 3,678 of them Negroes. All of the victims during 1941 were Negroes. Most startling of the five took place on Army territory at Fort Benning, Ga., on April 3 where Felix Hall, a Negro volunteer was found hanging to a tree, clad in the uniform of the United States Army, his hands bound behind him. At the year's end the War Department had not made public the result of the findings of an investigation. The 1941 record of known lynchings is as follows: Feb. 20, Bruce Tisdale, Georgetown, S. C.; April 3, Felix Hall, Ft. Benning, Ga.; April 13, Robert Walker, Gaston County, N. C.; May 12, Robert Sapp, Blakely, Ga.; May 13, A. C. Williams, Quincy, Fla.

Students of the problem of lynching and mob violence, and compilers of lynching statistics, such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Tuskegee Institute and the Association of Southern Women for the Prevention of Lynching, were united in the belief that nation-wide condemnation of lynching growing out of the campaign against the evil and the agitation for Federal legislation against lynching had forced lynchers to use two new techniques. One of these, which had been noted for several years, was the going underground of lynching and the suppression of newspaper accounts regarding killings, particularly of Negroes in the South. This was made possible by a small posse getting rid of the victim, in contrast with previous years in which mobs of from 1,000 to 10,000 participated in the orgies.

The second technique, which seemed to be developing in 1941, to achieve the death of a victim without consequences to the killer or the bringing of opprobrium to the state, was seen in two episodes in Texas. On June 10, as a jury was being selected, Bob White, a Negro, was shot to death in the court room at Conroe, Tex., by W. S. Cochrane. White had twice previously been convicted of criminal assault upon Cochrane's wife. The nature of the trials in a mob-ridden atmosphere and the flimsiness of the evidence against White had brought two reversals for him — one by the Texas Court of Appeals and the other by the United States Supreme Court. The decision in the latter case bitterly scored the manner in which White had been victimized. Court attendants assigned to guard White made themselves conspicuously absent while Cochrane entered the courtroom with a revolver in his hand with which he killed White. Cochrane was released on very small bail and two days later was acquitted, to the cheers of a crowded courtroom.

In similar fashion, Mott Flournoy was stabbed to death on Nov. 23 in the courtroom at Lufkin, Texas. See also CRIME.

1940: Lynchings

During 1940, five Americans, four colored and one white, were lynched by American mobs. In ten other cases under investigation persons had been put to death under circumstances which strongly savored of lynching.

Most publicized of the 1940 lynchings was that of Elbert Williams on June 20 at Brownsville, Tenn. Williams, a respected and law-abiding Negro homeowner, had served on a delegation which included a minister, a farmer and a business man to seek information at the Haywood County, Tenn., Court House on the requirements to be met in qualifying to vote in the 1940 presidential election. Shortly after the delegation had visited the Court House, mobs appeared at the homes of the members of the delegation. Rev. Buster Walker, a minister, warned of the approach of the mob, fled in time. At the end of the year he was still a refugee from his church, home and other property. Elisha Davis, Negro proprietor of a filling station, was also forced to flee with his wife and seven children, his property being later confiscated by local white people. Elbert Williams' body was found in a nearby river several days after he had been abducted from his home by a mob, the two leaders of which, it was discovered, were local officials of the law. Investigation also revealed the names of ten members of the mob, but the grand jury returned a verdict that Willams had come to his death at the hands of parties unknown. The Federal Bureau of Investigation was still looking into the case as 1940 ended.

On Jan. 10, 1940, the House of Representatives passed the Gavagan-Fish Anti-Lynching Bill, but the Senate, fearing a filibuster, led by Senators from states with the worst lynching records, failed to take up the bill and vote on it although seventy or more of the ninety-six Senators were pledged to vote for it.

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.

1938: Lynchings

Lynchings during 1938 reached an all-time low of seven. The chief reason for this reduction was the persistent campaign for enactment of Federal legislation. The House of Representatives of the National Congress on April 15, 1937, passed the Gavagan Anti-Lynching Bill, H. R. 1507, by an overwhelming vote of 277 to 119. The bill was taken up in the United States Senate on Jan. 6, 1938, following an involved series of parliamentary maneuvers. Immediately a determined filibuster was begun to prevent a vote on the bill in the Senate. Even its most implacable enemies freely admitted that were a vote taken the bill would pass by an overwhelming majority, since 73 of the 96 Senators were pledged to vote for it. The filibuster continued for more than six weeks at a total cost estimated to be $460,000. Eventually the bill was laid aside, on February 21, 1938, to permit consideration of an emergency relief measure.

During the filibuster and continuing to the adjournment of Congress, there was a complete stoppage of lynching. It is generally agreed that this was due to fear that lynchings would cause the revival of the bill and perhaps its passage. There were a number of instances where mobs about to lynch a victim were told that they would insure passage of Federal anti-lynching legislation if they did not refrain. In every instance, including one of a white man, while Congress was in session, this appeal proved effective.

Additional factors in the cessation of lynching during this period were the outspoken editorials of leading Southern newspapers like the Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch, the Louisville (Ky.) Courier-Journal, the Greensboro (N. C.) Daily News, the New Orleans (La.) Tribune, and other important papers; the active support of Federal legislation by such organizations as the Woman's Missionary Council of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, the Y.W.C.A., and other powerful bodies, both Northern and Southern; and the increased interest because of the oppression of minorities in Germany and other nations.

But with the adjournment of Congress mobs were relieved temporarily from the fear that the Congress would act. During the last half of 1938 the seven lynchings referred to were staged by a total of more than 1,000 persons. Despite assurance by filibustering Senators that the states could and would prevent lynchings in future, none of the lynchers were arrested or punished. Sponsors of the anti-lynching bill in both houses of the Congress announced in December that because of this fact the anti-lynching bills would be reintroduced in the 76th Congress convening in January 1939, and that a vigorous campaign would be renewed for their enactment.