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EDITORIAL :-:
UNFORTUNATE?
Blazing headlines tell of the lynching of Matthew Williams, Negro, on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, Friday night. Newspapers of Salisbury, the scene of the hideous defeat of legal justice, do not print the details of the violent atrocious crime.
The Salisbury Times says it would be superfluous to print the details of the lawless outrage, since most of the : so-called citizens were either present or had heard first hand information of the lynching.
j The Baltimore daily papers devoted a number of columns I to the story and claim the accounts as records of the facts ; upon the murder and the unlawful murder of the Negro.
Baltimore is quite removed from the place of lynching, and has no fears of similar outrages here. With this in mind the local papers do not seem particularly brave in denouncing the crime, and yet are to be commended for their stand. On the other hand, the Shore papers must first satisfy their immediate clientile and are to be commended upon their nerve in staking their reputation as newspapers in order to maintain their Shore circulations.
The general sentiment throughout the country is against lynching and mob violence, and it is only repetition to score this lawless outrage against decency occurring within the bounds of the Free State.
We as Negroes are conctrned with the lynching as it affects the race in this State. To appreciate this angle we must determine the sentiment of Shore Negroes. It is believed that this attitude is one of passive resistance.
It is generally thought on the Eastern Shore that law-abiding colored persons will go unmolested. This adherence to law is usually characterized by submissiveness to wishes of the other race. Such submissiveness allows ignorant whites to believe themselves superior and leads them to take the law into thir own filthy hands.
True American citizens, white or black, denounce this outrage upon the sentiment and constitution of the United States and refuse to accept the lynching as "unfortunate." It is NOT unfortunate. It is abhorent.
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