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Fi-1 Southern Congressmen Hrr- j not □hot at Negro urgam-s i zation Witnesses,ora{By Associated Praia)Washington, Dee. 30. — Southern members of the House census commit tee holding hearings on the Congres h i sional apportionment bill were arous ed today by the charge of W alter F White of New York, assistant -secre tary of the National Association fo:■ the Advancement of Colored People \/* - that the majority of the white people; ' !in many communities were lawless.During the discussion of objections to hear-say evidence,” Representative 1 Towner, Republican, Iowa, made_ £ point or order that there was ^nothing concerning this question before the ! committee. Chairman Siegel ‘in over-| ruling the point of order declared the J hearings had gone far afield and had ' brought in matters not originally contemplated. Responsibility for their injection, he said, was not upon -the chairman, but upon members of the [committee who had insisted upon questioning witnesses along those lines.The Southerners declared they were perfectly willing to hear the witnesses, but that they would not sit silent andhave their “sections slandered.”In the course of the discussion, hairman Siegel said he had receiveda *r *1 * 1 1 _ Ij'ii a /n vsIStelan-ja letter from Jacksonville, Fla., con-jtaining “more startling” allegations ’than those m*»de yesterday before thecommittee. Representative Frank A.Clark, a member of the Florida delegation, entered the room at this juncture and asked that his delegation be ,, furnished mth a copy of all the'testi-ld mony anu be ^:-/en an opportunity to a_ Unpear a^d refute the charges made against his state. Chairman Segel as-i* sured him that the Florida Congress-J, men would be heard uext week. Mr. '(t Clark told the committee the Floridai election laws were “the fairest of auy l.n 1 state in the union,” and in the last : electicr. no man or woman was ..■mied)Yi-i AVthe right to vote who was entitled to’® (jo go,J. Weldon Johnson, negro, secretary of the National Assr**-r.tion, alleged that negrot;; were prevf’^ed from voting in the South through the manner in which the ejection laws were admm- -istered. The laws, he sa-d, were fair' on their face, but worked against the'[negroes* ” ; ■ ( • .y | At the conclusion of his statemenc.,e * Representative Bee again demandedlT that “witnesses be confined to facts.;i' Representative Barbour, Democrat,.111 of California, asked the witness if it-? were not true Ilia', the election laws of ■ almost every state provided certain |0 j qualifications for voting and that con- j I sequently enforcement of those qualifications were to prevent certam people from exercising the privilege. He asked if it were not true that Massa-1 chusetts provided a literacy test and j that if Congress should go into the , matter of inquiring into the number:I of persons prevented from voting m j each .through operation cf their elec-5 tion law:; would the task not be im*2 pobrv-e?” He declared the questionshould be made a national one if it5! were gv.r.e into at all.5 White continued his allegations eon-*1 ernhig Florida, declaring that be-!'aHu»I j tween 32 and 35 negroes were burned s to death in a fire in the negro section ’ of Ocoee, following an election riot.II The fire, he said, was set by the mob. In Qumcy, Fla., he said, W. S. Stevens, a negro physician, was warned to leave town because he had interested himself in having negroes vote, and at Live Oak, last October, two negroes were beaten for the same thing ^ and warned to leave. One left, he saui,; and the other was lying at the poim 'of death at his last information.“Why didn’t you get a written statement from Dr. Stevens, instead of talc-, ji - ------—* from someoneelse?” asked Representative Larsen.White said he did not investigate the particular case as he was busy on other matters and that it was impossible for him to make_ a personal m-ouiry into each complaint. Mr. Larsen asked White if the activities of his association were entirely political. White . rei)lied that they included the econoia ,lie as well as the political rights. ( , “Did vou investigate the riots mj Ea't St Louis?” continued Represen-1i tative Larsen. . .* White replied that he did not, buttV-at nnothe'r member of his organization did.
Newspaper Details
Hattiesburg American
Hattiesburg, Mississippi, US
Thu, Dec 30, 1920
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Gregory S.
FL, USA 30 Jun 2020
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