Newspapers / Africo-American Presbyterian (Wilmington, N.C.) / Aug. 16, 1934, edition 1 / Page 1
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SSWSijWgjj' AND YE SHALL KNOW THETRUYH,' AND THE TRIJTR SHALL- MAKE YOU FREE."-.li.hi» vili SS VOL. LY. CHARLOTTE, THURSDAY, AUGUST 16, 1934. §~*. BATTERING DOWN THE BARRIERS OF PREJUDICE I. I . .1 —■ I I .: ).: • stirring Chapters from the 25- Year History of th# National association for the Advancement of Colored People NO. 16. UNUSUAL ENDINGS FOR THE “USUAL CHIME.” Thanks to the efforts of the N. A/A. C. ?. Negroes accused ox raping wmte women are not., always lynched or sentenced to death, in 1922, Luther Collins was arrested m Houston, lex uu; unargea with criminal as sault upon a white woman. Ht was hastily tried, evidence fa voring him was excluded, and ne was convicted and sentenced to death, the Houston .branch en tered the case and secured a re versal of the conviction on the basis of the excluded testimony The second trial ended in a hung jury, eight jurors being ior ac quittal and four for a lighter sentence than the death penal ty. On October 29, 1924, Col lins was again tried and sen tenced to 99 years’ imprison ment. The branch attorneys promptly appealed and in Jan uary, 1925, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals reversed the conviction and ordered a retri al. At the fourth trial in 1926, the case was dismissed. Luther Collins was freed in September from the cell he had occupied since 1922. The Houston Branch raised by itself the $2,000 need ed for his defense. The defense lawyers were Houston white men. 'A Kansas “Scottsboro Case On March 17, 1927. two white girls, Margaret Akers and Ju lia Mooney, claimed to have hew— sainted by two men at. Coffeyville, Kan. Three colored men were arrested. A riotous mob stormed the jail and racial feeling ran high. Three Negroes were jailed on a charge of in citing to riot. At the urgent request of the Coffeyville Branch, the National Legal Committee of the N. A. A. C. P. sent Attorney Elisha Scott (colored) to that city to defend the Negroes. Mr. Scott persuaded the Grand Jury to investigate the rape charge. This resulted in the arrest of Julia Mooney and Ira Kennedy ,a white salesman, and the revelation that white men and not Negroes were in volved in the rape charge. The Mooney woman was placed un der |20,000 bond and Kennedy was jailed. As a result of the subsequent hearing Julia Moo ney and Kennedy were bound over to the District Court, bonds being fixed at $6,000 each. Kennedy was remanded to jail in default of bond. At the trial Margaret Akers charged that Kennedy had assaulted her and that the Negro theory had been advanced <by Julia Moo ney. Nevertheless, the Mooney woman and Kennedy were ac quitted on July 20, 1927. Although the case against these two whites was lost, sen timent against the colored men charged with inciting to riot •changed and through the work of the Coffeyville Branch and the befit class of citizens, suf ficient pressure was brought on the County Attorney to cause him to make a motion to dismiss the cases. AH of the colored men were freed. The National office contributed $350 to the legal defense, the remainder of the cost being met by the Coffey viHe Branch. The Oswald Durant Case Another' case with an unusu al ending was that of Oswald Durant, a stnior at Meha»rv Medical College, Nashville, Tenn., who was arrested in 1924, charged with criminal as sault upon a white girl of that eity. Durant was a man of splendid reputation, a brilliant student and hailed from one of the finest colored families in South Carolina. The Naehvlile N. A. A. C. P. Branch, with the backing of a number of leading clergymen, investigated the charge against Durant, the inquiry proving that he was obviously innocent of the erime. Funds were raised and Jen McCarn, white, one of the ablest criminal lawyers in Tennessee, was employed to con* duct the defense. Nashville churches, lodges and individu* uals soon raised $1,775 of the $2,000 fee asked by Attorney McCarn. The penalty for rape in Ten nessee is death, but upon trial and conviction Durant was sen tenced to life imprisonment. An appeal to the Supreme Court of Tenneseee was heard on Febru ary 27, 1925. On May 1, the Supreme Court reversed the de cision of the Davidson County Criminal Court and Ordered a new trial. On May 18. Durant was released on small bond. The new trial was set for October 8, 1925, but was finally nolle prossed and Mr. Durant was freed. The Strange case or tsen uess In 1915 Ben Bess, a well-to-do Negro farmer of Florence County, South Carolina, was accused by a white woman of raping her. He narrowly es caped lynching and was sen tenced to thirty years’ impris onment. In May* $928, thirteen years later, hirf sentence waa commuted by Governor Rich ards, after the white woman believing herself about to die, executed an affidavit denying and refuting her testimony against Bess. This brought a full unconditional pardon for Ben Bess. When there was talk of bringing perjury proceedings against the white woman, she promptly executed a second af fidavit, repudiating the first one, declaring that she had thereby merely meant to ‘Tor give” him. Governor Richards immediately undertook to re voke the pardon he had issued. Habeas corpus proceedings were promptly instituted by N. J. Frederick, of Columbia, S. C., the N. A. A. C. P. attor ney representing Bess, and the case was referred by a court to a Master, who found there had been no fraud in the execu tion of the woman’s first affi davit as she had declared in her second one. The court neverthe less ignored the master’s find ings, dismissed the writ of ha habeas corpus and Bess was re turned to orison. The Association’s ' attorney then appealed to the Supreir* Court of South Carolina which deliberated for eleven months. On October 12,1929, in En Banc Session, with all Circuit Judg es flitting with tWe Supreme Court, that court by a vote of 10 to 7 ruled the Governor had no authority, to revoke the par don. Ben. Bess was thereupon freed and is now living in the North. The Association expend ed $300 on the case. When “Rapists” Go Free Down South Even bigger news than a man biting a dog, is a Negro accused of raping a white woman,' go ing 1 free below _ the Mason Dixon line, and yet, believe it or not, it has happened. Centreville, Tenn., is certainly in the South and Turley Wright is unmistakably a. Negro. In 1929 he was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment on a charge of criminally assulting an aged white woman. The woman’s grand-daughters, who testified against Wright, later admitted having been away from tlie scene of the attack. Thereupon two of the prosecuting attor neys, in open court, withdrew from the case. The trial jurors made affidavit that they had voted against Wright in defair ence to prevalent mob sentiment and to prevent his lynchin*. W. L. Pinkerton, white defense counsel, moved for a new tria& The judge granted the. motioit At the second trial Attorney General E. W. Eggleston der dared in open court that the State had no additional evidence to present. Judge J. C. Hobbs thereupon instructed the jui^ to bring in a verdict of “Nqijb Guily.” Turley Wrght w*2 .reed. The N. A. A. C. P. 8p*|§ flOO on this case. Early dn 1930, Jack Rossi, a Negro, was charged with crim inal assault and rape in Monroe, La., allegedly having assaulted a white woman on a lonely road after beating her male compan ion. He was tried in May, bahri represented by Attorney Hpgl T. Layne, white, and was jn# quitted. The Monroe Branch was extremely active in the case. The National office contri buted $125 to the Ross defense^ William Harper was con demned to death on January 29 1931, for alleged assault oif a white woman of Portsmouth, Va., yet on March 6, 1931, hi was acquitted of that Crime £nd thfe woman \w^s subsequently Convicted of perjury. At the Sec ond trial obtained for Haroar by the Norfolk N. A. A. C.^\, witnesses testified that the white woman was forty -miles from the scene of the alleged attack, had spent the night with a white man who courageously, w~testffied,~ antf -thatshe 4i«(r been seen in a North Carolina dance hall on the night of the attack. The Norfolk Branch spent $345 on Harper’s defense. Other Noted oases In 1932 through the activity of the National Office three ru ral Louisiana policemen , were arrested by federal authorities on charges of obstructing the United States mails by takir Ernest Thomas, a Negro rail way postal cleric from a train, beating him severely and jail ing him for having allegedly broken some eggs -on a previous run. In ,1925 the Fort Wayne, (Ind.) Branch employed an at torney to fight the case of Ha zel Harris, a young Negro beat en up and shot by Hiram Alt man, a railroad detective. Alt man was fined $500 and sen tenced to six months in prison. In the Abe Washington case in 1922, in Florida, where a Ne gro was convicted of murder and sentenced to death, the As sociation appealed on the ground of Negro exclusion from juries. While the appeal was lost, in T928 Washington's sentence was commuted to life imprison ment. In 1928, the Petersburg, Va., Branch spent $2,000 in the de fense of two colored women, Mr3. Odessa Kelly and(Mrs. Be atrice McNeil, who were charged with perjury in testifying in behalf of William Nelson, a Ne gro later^ executed for rape. Sentenced to three yearn, the Virginia Supreme Court grant ed them a new trial. Charged with having beaten two white hoboes jand forced them from & freight train, John May, age 28, and Richard Har ris, age 21, were arrested at LaPorte, Indiana, trie*i and within 48 hours were on their way to life imprisonment. Rob ert Lee Brokenbur and R. L. Bailey, N. A. A. C. P. attorneys, fought the case through the va rious legal steps, until a new trial was granted. On Decem ber 12, 1982, the case was dis missed for lack * ef witnesses and tfte two boys were freed. The public is generally famil iar with most of the details of the Seottsboro cases, but it is not so wel] known that for the appeal to the Alabama Supreme Court the N. A. A. C. P. re tained Fort, Beddow and Ray, foremost criminal law firm of Alabama, Clarence Darrow, of Chicago, and Arthur Garfield1 Hays of New York; that the bill of exceptions, 790 pages long, one of .the most elaborate ever presented to an Alabama court, was prepared by N. A.k. C. P. attorneys, signed by ffhe trial judge and certified to the Supreme Court. _ The Communists, through the International Labor Defense, entered the case by persuading the defendants to sign a written request that the I. L. D. alone represent them. The N. A. A. C. P. thus had no other alterna tive but to withdraw. Altogeth er the Association had spwt' grand total of $11,845.70. Of *his sum $4,667.07 has been paid out in legal bills through the I. D. L. since the ^asociation’SI withdrawal from, the case. The( money was raised by the Asso ciation througn its 400 branch es which held special Scotts-< boro meetings, and through ledges, clubs, churches, frater nities, sororities and other or ganized groups, and individuals who wished to contribute to the Scottsboro defense through an organization whose record in spired confidence that the mon ye would be expended for the purpose solicited. These are but a selected few of the numerous cases handled by the Association. We have not touched upon many, such as the pending Tom Carraway east in Mississippi and the^Jess Hollins case ip Oklahoma. Scores of ap pS&S Mr did are feceive^iich Tftonth. Wherever there is injus tice because of color, the Asdto : iat’on promptly puts its defense machinery in motion. It has an impressive record of vic tories. SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, RED SPRINGS, N.a Sunday morning, August 12, at 11 o|clock our pastor, Rev. R. N. Cowan, brought to us a real soul-stirring message from Isaiah 55:2, after which Mrs. Cowan sang a solo, “Watch and Pray/’ The entire service was enjoyed by all. The second Sunday afternoon at 3:30 o’clock we were more than pleased to have preach for us the Rev. L. W. Hedrick, min ister of the M. E. Chapel of this city. He presented a very helpful sermon, while his jun ior choir rendered very beauti ful music. A large audience witnessed this impressive ser-’ vice. We were glad to have Rev. t. B. Black, pastor of the First Presbyterian church (white) of this city, preach for us recent ly at an afternoon service. Our Bible School, under the direction of Rev. R. N. Cowan, opened the 9th of July and Was in session ten days. Each child seemed to have enjoyed it daily. Many songs, Bible verses and Tories were learned as well as nlavs and games. We had an enrollment of 108 with 7 in structors. Monday, July 23rd, at 3:00 o’clock, marked the closing. A very interesting pro gram was rendered which con sisted of group singing, solos, Bible Story Telling and recita tions. The handicraft work was also on exhibition that day. At the close of the program each child was served a large amount of lemonade. W,e feel fthat all concerned were benefited by the school and we hope that another year we shall be prepared to do a bigger and better work. Everything in the future is appointed by God. r\; ’ n b ■- > •• A Brief Summary of the Wtorfc Done on the MUMkehoro and Pineville Fields During June and July. By Joseph L. Brown ; The Middlesboro Field I arrived here at Middtosboro on <iune 1, 1934, and found eve rybody enthusiastic . over the coming for they had been with out a shepherd for a period of two years. I was met at the sta tion by one of the church mem bers and was carried immediate, ly up to his home to have din-, ru with the lady who has so successfully k“pt the little fioek together, I received a very cor dial welcome from the people andemoyed a very fine dinner. this 1 began to in quire concerning our work here <tr8f the number of members. Mrs. Givens gave me all of the information tnat she could. 1 immediately secured the ad-, uresses of ah the members ana visited each one’s home on Saturday, June 2nd, and invited them to come to church on the following Sunday, June 3rd. They readily consented and on Sunday morning they were all out bright and early for Sun day school. We had a glorious Sunday school lesson and every jne seemed to nave enjoyed it. Following the Sunday school we had a short recess and then went into the eleven o’clock, ser vice. The consequence of this service was the members met me with no other expression on their faces but the hospita-‘ ble spirit of Jesus Christ. I was made welcome to their homes^ Work Done cm the Field—First If was less than three weieks after I came here that I had one of the greatest experiences of my life. It was the funeral of one of our young women, age 25, who departed this life on June 25, 1934. I had to preach and conduct this funer al. Some Members Lose interest After a period covering three Sundays some of the members seemed as if they were about to lose interest in our work again, and I knew the reason: it was because they were in the old rut of two years of not going to church. I got busy on the job and visited each one's home and asked them why it was that their great spirit of enthusiasm had died down so early? Some of them gave frivolous excuses, while some could not give any. We then told them that we were not playing and that we meant business. They then became se rious and promised me that they would begin coming to the church again. All of them kept their promises with one excep tion. I made three visits to his home, but did not catch him home either time. I met him on the street one day and I asked him why it was that he did not attend our church services. He was sirucK ana answered me' not a word. I told him that if he could not come to church, I would announce that services would be held at his home on a certain Sabbath. He then an swered me as follows: “Rev. Brown, if you think that much of me, I will come to church/’ Since then this man has been coming to .the Sunday school, eleven o'clock services, and the evening services. He also brings his wife with him. Prayer Meeting; -Our prayer meeting is anoth er vital auxiliary in our church. We never had any prayer meet ings on Wednesday evenings during the last two yean. When I came here last June Ivtarted it again. Now we have a nice little group coming to prayer( meeting every Wednesday evjfc nmg. Now our prayer meeting fc a live wire in our church. D. V. B. 8. i.: We also conducted a Daily Va cation Bible School in oila church with the . assistance of the various city churches. Our, enrollment was. not as large as we were expecting but we had a nice little group taking into consideration hew hot the summer has been. We bald only 25 pupils. This school wan. had from the 2nd through the f ti} of July. We willi conduct & JDt V. B. S. neajt stimriier, perhaps at an earlier date. We had in struction. in the following de partments: Primary,. Junior, Senior, Intermediate, and Adult. We offered such courses as: Story Telling, Handicraft, Methods and New Testament We also had instruction in gym nastic exercises. The Spiritual Side of Our Church ine spiritual side of our, church was almost run down. I found a little spark when I dune here and I began to fan it and now* it has ^rown into a goxl turning fire, and the people in the city now recognize us as the Presbyterian church and not as “Sister Givens’ church." She was the one who kept this little spark until 1 came. We are happy to announce r,hat we had two members to join us during the month of July. This shows'that we must be about our “Father’s Business." The people are so awdoas-^for services ~that ~ some of them go to chutCh even before I do. This was true in June. We want to keep up this spirit and we are going to do it by the help of Gd as long as 1 am here. We have services here every Sunday in the month. On the second and fourth Sundays we have services twice, plus Sun day school. On the 1st and 3rd Sundays we have services in the evenings at seven-thirty o’clock. At 11 o’clock on these Sundays I am usually in Pinevilie. Serving the Community Not only am I working with our church here, but I am also working in the commit vity be cause I know that if our church is going to grow, and it is grow ing, for we have two new mem bers, we must join in and serve the community. I am a member of the Ministerial Alliance and also the chairman of the pro gram committee.' I have preached for the A. M. E. Zion church, and I am trying to help in every capacity whenever I am called upon to do so. The Pinevilie Field—Preaching On this field we have preach ing twice a month. I was hop ing to arrange to have it here every Sunday but the people do not want service but twice. This 1 \s what they told me. On ac-f nount of this I am now giving them two Sundays a month. The spiritual side of the church is very encouraging. The peo pie really have the Spirit of Christ in their hearts, and are willing to do what they can to make the, work go. The Sunday School The Sunday school was rvpt down on this field. Since I have been here we have reorganized our Sunday school and are try ing to enlarge it. We have on a campaign with the slogan: “Let Everybody Bring Some One.” This plan seems to be working all r|ght. We had three new pu pils out to Sunday school (On Sunday, August 5th. We hope t o build up a good Sunday school here. A Candidate for the Ministry One thing that I am proud of (Continued on page 4)
Africo-American Presbyterian (Wilmington, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Aug. 16, 1934, edition 1
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