Hide Article Text (OCR)
Statement by .lames WoWlen JohnsonField Secretary of the NationalAssociation for the Advauco-inent of Colored People.There has been for a number ofyears a well directed propaganda,issuing principally from the South, which has had as nts purpose plac ing the brand of rapist on the Negro race. This propaganda has been partly successful in establishing in the public mind the idea that there is the direct relation of cause and effect between rape and mob violence against the Negro.Whenever t lie Negro protests against lynching, nearly all southern newspapers and a great many north era newspapers call upon him to de preculc llie crime which leads to lynching. The authentic statistics on lynching prove the falsehood on which this propaganda is based.In the twenty years down to 1903there were 1,9S6 Negroes lynched in tho Southern States. Of that number rape was assigned as the cause in only 075 cases, in 1,310 cases oilier causes were assigned.In the past thirty years fifty Negro women have been lynched, in tho past twelve months live Negro womon have been lynched.In the five-year period, 19111918, 201 Negroes wore lynched in the United Slates exclusive of those kill ed at East St. Louis and out of I his number rape was assigned as tho cause in only 2S cases.Contrast these records, bad as they may appear, with the records for New York, County which is only a part of New York City and wo find that in this ono county in tho single year of 1917, 230 persons wore indict for rape by the Grand Jury. Of this number 37 were indicted for rape In tho firBt degrco. That is, in just * part of New York City degree waa nino more than the total number of porsonB indicted for rape in tho first charge of rape in tho ontire Uniled States duriug tlio period of 1914-1918. Among these 37 persous indictod by the New York County Grand Jury thore was not a singlo Nogro. Tho ovidcnce required by the Grand Jury of New York County to Indict a per son charged with rape must he moro conclusive than the evidence requir ed by a mob to lynch a Nogro accuaed of rape.When the Congressional Committee on Immigration in 1911 mado its study of crime in the United States an investigation was mado of 2,262 cases in llio New York Court of Gen oral Sessions and in that inveatiga tion it was found that tho percentage for tho crimo of rape waa lowor for the Nogro than for oither tho forolgn born or native born whites. The. act uni figures were, for foreign born whites 1.8; for nativo born whites..8; and for Negroes .5.The echods from the Washington riots are a present illustration of how this propaganda agaiaat tho No gro works. The newspiqphrs liavo been fiHod with attacks on white wo men as an excuse for the riots and thoso attacks on white womon are now being used by southern papers as an excuse and Justification for the first acts of the white mol).A retired Judge of tho Superior Court of North Carolina, writing on the Washington riots in the Wilmlng ton Dispatch, speaks of Negroos seiz ing automobiles and riding and Bnort ing through the streets of Washington while tho raping “went merrily on. What are tho facts?According to .the data of Major Puliman, Chiof of Police of Washing ton, there took place in tho District of Columbia bewtcen Juno 25, 1919 and tho outbeak of the riot one case of rapo and three cases of attempted rape. Tho first case of attempt wits on'a colored school teacher. In three of these cases the suspect was ono man and he was in jail when tho riots broko out. No publicity was giv on to tho fact that five weeks beforo the riots, two white men, a motor man and a conductor on a at root car attempted rape upon two colored girls who were the only passengers in the car when it reached the end of the line. These two men are nowunder heavy hail.I repeat that thero is a diroct plan of propaganda on the part of tho South to brand the Negro with being a rapist In order that he rr.ay he robbed of all sympathy and pub lie interest when lie is lynched and mobbed. Tho truth is, tho TTTgro is not more addicted, and is perhaps less addicted to rape thnh any other group in the country. *
Newspaper Details
Richmond Planet
Richmond, Virginia, US
Sat, Aug 16, 1919
Page 13
Full Page
Clipped by
Library O.
USA 15 Oct 2019
Other Publications Near Richmond, Virginia
Richmond Family Visitor
Richmond Evening Truth
Richmond Critic
Richmond Childrens Friend
Richmond Christian Observer
