Tuesday, October 14, 2014

October 14, 1920: Select Reid

Today's lynching comes to us from The Washington Post (Washington, D. C.) dated October 15, 1920:

ATTACKS "BOSS;" IS LYNCHED

Posse Riddles Discharged Negro's Body With Bullets.

Greenville, Ala., Oct. 14.—Select Reid, a negro, was lynched by a mob near Greenville today after an attack by him on A. H. Arrington, superintendent of the Southern Cottonoil Company plant.

The superintendent had discharged the negro and he was struck by him with an iron pipe, and is not expected to live.

The negro was followed by a posse, which located him in a swamp. At noon today his body was found in the swamp riddled with bullets. the circuit court is now in session and an investigation will start at once. 


An article of interest comes to us from the Richmond Planet (Richmond, Virginia) printed August 19, 1899:

A REIGN OF TERROR

A Deplorable Condition of Affairs in Georgia—Gov, Chandler Appealed to.

ATLANTA, GA., Aug. 15.—A special to the Constitution from Greenwood, S. C., says:

The sheriff of this county to-day appealed to Governor McSweeney for aid to assist him in the suppressing White Caps outrages which began here suddenly one week ago.

To-night the Governor sent word that he would be in Greenwood tomorrow with Attorney-General Bollinger to make a personal investigation of the situation.

For more than a week a gang of so called White Caps have been whipping colored people in this county nearly every night. The section between Greenwood and Phoenix is largely tenanted by colored people who rent from white landlords. It was at Phoenix, in the community thickly settled by colored people, that the election riots between blacks and whites took place last November. Since then, among a lower class of whites, there has been an unrelenting disposition to drive out the colored people, and certain white men here, it is said, desire to get control of the valuable lands, thereabout, and in order to do so, they have set about to drive the colored people out.

Monday night, one week ago, the whipping began. Colored people's houses were visited and the inmates taken out and beaten. Several night last week this performance was repeated and a wide territory has been covered in this manner by the White Cappers. The colored people are said to be in a state of terror and many spend the nights in the woods and swamps while others seek the protection of their white landlords.

On Saturday night two hundred colored people spent the night in Greenwood and many of them have never returned to their homes, fearing to do so. So far as is known, none have left the county.


I am sure that the Governor of Georgia at the time was Gov. Chandler, unfortunately this article may have been printed in an Atlanta paper, the actual news is in South Carolina.  I guess that's a lesson about not skimming a source before one writes an article. Thank you for joining me and as always, I hope I leave you with something to ponder. 

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