An unknown negro, Clayton, August 30, 1911.
Found in The Kansas City Kansas Globe (Kansas City, Kansas) dated February 10, 1908:
An Alabama mob lynched a negro, fired a volley of pistol shots at him and dispersed; whereupon the negro climbed down and walked away. Are Alabama lynchers mollycoddles?
Found in The Semi-Weekly Citizen (Asheville, N. C.) dated August 31, 1893:
The Warsaw Gazette says: At the colored picnic at the old Dowtin place, a few days since, ex-Congressman Cheatham made a bitter speech. He raved about negroes being lynched and said God would have to put a stop to the hellish work, or send a war to do it. We interrupted him and told him to preach down the crimes they had committed and stop such, or that lynching would continue as long as the crimes did.
Found in The Topeka Daily Capital (Topeka, Kansas) dated March 16, 1892:
Law in Democratic States.
From the Columbia, S. C., Record (Dem.)
Lynched in Missouri!
Lynched in Alabama!
Lynched in Arkansas!
Lynched in Virginia!
Lynched in Louisiana!
What is the matter with the law? Isn't it about time we had a national crime congress? The fact of so many lynchings and of the boldness of the lynchers is proof positive that the courts are no longer respected.
Lastly, found in The Daily Free Press (Kinston, N. C.) dated November 26, 1898:
The "Joke" on the Lynchers.
New Orleans State.
The other day an Alabama mob lynched the wrong man and they "deeply regretted it." They might do as a Texas mob once did. They hung a man for stealing a mustang and shortly after learned that he was innocent. After debating the question they decided that the captain should call on the widow and apologize. Riding up to the fence he called her to the door and explained the mistake that had been made, closing thus, "Madam, the joke's on us."
The members of lynch mobs no doubt went to church the Sunday following their crime where they worshiped the Prince of Peace, and went home rejoicing that they were such good Christians. Even today, no one favors guns, torture and "military solutions" so much as Christians. I really and truly just don't get it.
ReplyDeleteI understand completely how you feel. Since I follow no religion, I always have found it confusing to be told how immoral I am by people who condone these types of acts but consider themselves more moral than others.
DeleteOnce people think God wants a certain thing to happen, they are beyond reason. They believe that God creates morality, so if God says go out and slaughter people, then slaughtering people is a moral act. Last week, the pope said that religion is always a force for good, but for people who think they're acting in God's name, being a force for good can include murder.
DeleteSo true. The things I hear and witness living godless in Alabama.
DeleteI'm 67. I spent 36 years in Mississippi, two in Minneapolis, and the other 29 in Eugene, Oregon. I came here primarily to get away from Southern culture, but now that I have, I feel displaced, like I live in two places at the same time with my heart being in one--Mississippi--and my body in the other--Oregon. Yet, I don't think I even could go back because I would no more belong now than I did when I left. I also think the religious discrimination has gotten worse in the South. I know the FFRF is active in Alabama, and I so hope you belong. By the way, I have roots in Alabama. My mother’s mother was related to a Senator Heflin from there, and my father’s parents moved to Brookhaven from Bridgeport, way up in the northeastern part of the state.
DeleteYou have twenty years on me. I spent my childhood in Florida and South Carolina, my adult life in Louisiana, Germany, West Texas and New Mexico with the last eight in Alabama. I say West Texas because West Texas is nothing like East Texas and the culture is not Southern. I understand the displacement for a Southern living away from the South. When my husband took a job in Alabama I told him once I am in the South I will not leave it. There are so many things to dislike about the South, but I can't help but love the South. I am doubly damned here though, being atheist and liberal, but luckily I have a support group of like minded people. The FFRF is such an important group ans I follow their activities. At least I am in North Alabama. My heart truly belongs to the lowcountry of South Carolina, though, and I hope to eventually return.
Delete“I say West Texas because West Texas is nothing like East Texas and the culture is not Southern.”
ReplyDeleteYes, I know, having traveled Texas extensively when I lived in Mississippi. Your devotion to the South is less understandable to me. I miss it terribly, but some of the reasons I left it have only gotten worse, namely it’s religiosity and maybe even it’s poverty. Besides, after 30 years away, mostly here in Oregon, I would feel as displaced if a I left than I do by staying.
Nothing against your choices, but as I tell my children you can't change the things you dislike by leaving. I am a stubborn person and I love the South too much to abandon it. Things will only change from the inside and there are plenty of us "living blue in red states" trying our best to create change. My family is also in SC so I never really leave. I visit SC at least every other year to see family and it calls me back every time.
DeleteI suppose one learns from the experience whether one stays or goes. I would probably still go, but not so far. Peggy has family in Clinton, Utica, and North Carolina, so she goes to one place one year and one the next, but it takes three flights and a lot of aggravation to get to either. I have a sister in Clinton from whom I’ve been estranged since 1994, and it is only this year that we’ve resumed any contact—through email. I also have a half-sister in Pensacola who is more a penpal than a sister, and a half-brother in Beaumont whom I’ve only met and have no relationship with. So, for me, with my parents dead—my father died here, in this house, in 1994), I have nothing to return to other than memories. I have offered to move back so Peggy could be closer to her family, but she’s adamant about NEVER living in the South again. She has a full life here in Oregon, and since she grew-up in the Air Force, a sense of place was never terribly important to her.
ReplyDeleteMy parents and two brothers live in SC. My children live in Alabama. When I moved here I had a grandparent living in Georgia and one in Florida. My husband was in the Army for 22 years and around 18 months in a place, I would get antsy to move. I've been here 8 years and I only want one more move in my life. Out of Alabama. I love the low country of SC, Alabama I could live without. You can't spit without hitting a church here. In fact, they are building one at the end of our road! It went from a field of soy beans to a church. Like that is necessary. I don't know if you have ever been to Charleston, SC, but it is a different Southern city and I love it so much. I would probably find it easier to leave the south if I had no connection to Charleston. My son would rather move back to the southwest, but doesn't want to leave family.
ReplyDeleteMy parents and two brothers live in SC. My children live in Alabama. When I moved here I had a grandparent living in Georgia and one in Florida. My husband was in the Army for 22 years and around 18 months in a place, I would get antsy to move. I've been here 8 years and I only want one more move in my life. Out of Alabama. I love the low country of SC, Alabama I could live without. You can't spit without hitting a church here. In fact, they are building one at the end of our road! It went from a field of soy beans to a church. Like that is necessary. I don't know if you have ever been to Charleston, SC, but it is a different Southern city and I love it so much. I would probably find it easier to leave the south if I had no connection to Charleston. My son would rather move back to the southwest, but doesn't want to leave family.
ReplyDeleteI’ve been to Charleston, was struck by its beauty, and aware that it was more liberal and less hot than inland areas—as coastal cities often are. My main memories of SC are the gardens at Myrtle Beach and Fort Pulaski below Savannah. My only real concern about Charleston would be the blamed hurricanes, but even they are no so scary as tornadoes. Here, we’ve overdue for a +9 earthquake, though, so not many areas are really safe.
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