Governor Ritchie's Clipping File on Lynching
msa_s1048_1_and_10-0649

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Governor Ritchie's Clipping File on Lynching
msa_s1048_1_and_10-0649

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one of his own race, and believe a white man's plain word rather than a Negro's solemn oath. Events like the lynching of Williams tend to shatter the feelings of confidence and security. Admitting that all the charges against Lee, Davis and Williams are true (as reported by the white press) the Negro feels his moorings slipping when the white man shows such poor sportsmanship as to outrage his own law and confess himself a slave to passions as base as any attributed to his victim. He feels himself due a better reward for faithful service of a lifetime than the implication of the mob that such a "warning" was needed. If, as intimated, there are foes of tha Government at work seeking to foment discontent with economic and social conditions what stronger argument could they wish? Perhaps the white people do not cars what the Negro thinks or how he feels, but it seems rational that they should consider the possibility of reducing a black Sampson to hopeless desperation. The Negro may come to feel it futile to struggle for tha unattainable status of equality before tha law; that he has no warrant for the continuance of the modified enjoyment of citizenship rights; that he has little to lose should he join hands with those who may seek to destroy the temple wherein his foes make merry. W. C. Jasok. St. Michaels, Md., Dec. 11.