| CHAPTER: I. II. III. IV. |
| The city of Newnan, GA is many times spelledNewman, Ga. |
| (Ebook transcriber’s note.) |
Lynch Law
in Georgia.
BY
IDA B. WELLS=BARNETT
==========
A Six-Weeks’ Record in the Center of Southern Civilization,
As Faithfully Chronicled by the “Atlanta Journal”
and the “Atlanta Constitution.”
ALSO THE FULL REPORT OF LOUIS P. LE VIN,
The Chicago Detective Sent to Investigate the Burning of
Samuel Hose, the Torture and Hanging of Elijah Strickland,
the Colored Preacher, and the Lynching
of Nine Men for Alleged Arson.
————
This Pamphlet is Circulated by Chicago Colored Citizens.
2939 Princeton Avenue, Chicago.
CONSIDER THE FACTS.
During six weeks of the months of March and April just past, twelvecolored men were lynched in Georgia, the reign of outlawry culminatingin the torture and hanging of the colored preacher, Elijah Strickland,and the burning alive of Samuel Wilkes, alias Hose, Sunday, April 23,1899.
The real purpose of these savage demonstrations is to teach the Negrothat in the South he has no rights that the law will enforce. SamuelHose was burned to teach the Negroes that no matter what a white mandoes to them, they must not resist. Hose, a servant, had killedCranford, his employer. An example must be made. Ordinary punishment wasdeemed inadequate. This Negro must be burned alive. To make the burninga certainty the charge of outrage was invented, and added to the chargeof murder. The daily press offered reward for the capture of Hose andthen openly incited the people to burn him as soon as caught. The mobcarried out the plan in every savage detail.
Of the twelve men lynched during that reign of unspeakable barbarism,only one was even charged with an assault upon a woman. Yet Southernapologists justify their savagery on the ground that Negroes are lynchedonly because of their crimes against women.
The Southern press champions burning men alive, and says, “Consider thefacts.” The colored people join issue and also say, “Consider thefacts.” The colored people of Chicago employed a detective to go toGeorgia, and his report in this pamphlet gives the facts. We give herethe details of the lynching as they were reported in the Southernpapers, then follows the report of the true facts as to the cause of thelynchings, as learned by the investigation. We submit all to the soberjudgment of the Nation, confident that, in this cause, as well as allothers, “Truth is mighty and will prevail.”
IDA B. WELLS-BARNETT.
2939 Princeton Avenue, Chicago, June 20, 1899.{1}
CHAPTER I.
NINE MEN LYNCHED ON SUSPICION.
In dealing with all vexed questions, the chief aim of every honestinquirer should be to ascertain the facts. No good purpose is subservedeither by concealment on the one hand or exaggeration on the other. “Thetruth, the whole truth and nothing but t