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Books by Walter White
The Fire in the Flint (novel,1924)
/
Flight
(novel,1926) /
Rope
and Faggot: A Biography of Judge Lynch (1929)
How far the Promised Land?
955) /
A
Man Called White (autobiography,1948).
*
* * * *
Books on Lynching &
Racial Violence
The Chronological
History of the Negro in America (1969) /
Strain of
Violence: Historical Studies of American Violence and Vigilantism (1975)
But There Was
No Peace: The
Role of Violence in the Politics of Reconstruction
(1984) /
Lynch Law
( 1905) /
An American Dilemma
(1944)
The Crucible of Race:
Black-White Relations in the American South Since Emancipation
(1984) /
Encyclopedia of Southern Culture.
(1989)
Rope and Faggot
( 1929) /
The Tragedy of
Lynching (1933) /
Race Riot in East St,
Louis (1964) /
Urban Racial Violence
(1976)
/
Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders
(1968) /
Violence
in America (1969) *
* * * * WALTER WHITE ON LYNCHING
By Amy MacKenzie It was a powerful picture, drawn with swift,
strong strokes that flamed upward and seemed to burn themselves
upon my vision. And its title, significant in its
understatement, reads: “This Is Her First Lynching.”
Lynching.
Immediately, I was recalled to the purpose of
my presence in the outer offices of the National Association for
the Advancement of Colored People: I had come seeking an
interview with Walter White, secretary of that organization. I
returned to the picture on the wall opposite. “This is her
first lynching.” So it was, for the small child held on her
mother’s shoulder as they were borne along in a mass of
overwrought men and women sweeping toward death and murder.
The image of that child persisted, even as I
went into the office of Mr. White.
Walter White [1893-1945]
rose from his desk which was
covered with papers and books, evidence of work already
accomplished and still more to be finished, Here was a man who
seemed to have a hundred matters requiring his immediate
attention, yet he had graciously consented to an interview on
the question of the Federal Anti-lynching bill, precisely
because that, too, was a matter of primary importance.
His eyes, keen and gray behind rimmed
glasses, lit up when I spoke of lynching as an institution in
America. His immediate comment was: “the fundamental point in
this issue is that too many people consider lynching in its fact
and implications merely as they pertain to the Negro. But the
emergence of the Black Legion and of anti-Semitic and
anti-Catholic feelings is the inevitable result of the lynching
tradition in this country.
“Let me explain the operation of this
tradition,” he went on. “The attacks begin first on the most
vulnerable group, which in America has always been the Negro.
The technique is soon established. The public conscience,
accustomed to frequent attacks upon the Negro, becomes calloused
and shortly comes to accept the denial of court trials. Thus is
established the philosophy of bigotry.
“The convention and tradition have been
established by long usage and general acquiescence of the public
in terrorism and mob violence; the attack is initiated upon the
next most vulnerable group. Thus the Klan and the Black Legion
merely followed the convention of lynching as its method and
technique had been established against the Negro.”
When I asked Mr. White what relation lynching
had to the scheme of American life, he replied without
hesitation. “To me, lynching is both a cause and effect of the
Negro disenfranchisement in many parts of the South. Sheriffs
and public officials are elected by white votes and therefore
owe no allegiance to Negro citizens. On the other hand, lynching
and the threat of terrorism prevents Negroes from working and
agitating for the franchise which is rightfully theirs.”
At this point, we were interrupted by the
sharp ring of the telephone beside Mr. White. While he answered
its call, I took the opportunity to glance about his office. The
room, large and square, was lined with low bookcases which were
filled with volumes on a variety of subjects. Immediately behind
the desk hung an oil painting, which in its throbbing reds and
deep browns, as well as in its flat effect, recalled the early
Gauguin.
The subject, again a lynching. The morning
light, coming through the window to the right struck full on the
figure of the Negro which hung heavy and lifeless.
Was this civilization?
I put the question to Mr. White, who returned
to our conversation with interest. “Does any other nation,
with a degree of civilization compatible to ours accept
lynching?”
“No.” The reply from Mr. White was
definite. Interlocking his fingers and leaning back in his chair
he continued, “America is the only nation, civilized or
semi-civilized which countenances such a thing. Of course, the
situation is somewhat different in Germany. Conditions there are
the result of a national philosophy based on the supremacy of
the noble Nordic and maintained by the forces of nice Nazis.”
Citing the recent public hanging of a Negro
convict in Owensboro, Kentucky, at which fifteen thousand were
reported to have gathered, Mr. White maintained that such
conditions are abnormal. “The principle victims, was not the
executed man, but the minds and souls of those who witnessed his
death. The psychologists and psychiatrists are right when they
tell us that the spirit which prompts thousands to gather at
such events is sadistic and abnormal. Indeed, the abnormality
already affecting those who went to the spectacle became all the
greater after they had witnessed it. Owensboro left a terrible
and lasting mark on all who participated in the ghastly
spectacle.”
Turning to the question of the Federal
anti-lynching bill which the N.A.A.C.P., has consistently
supported, I asked Mr. White whether there was hope for its
success. In answer, he told me that the bill, formerly known as
Costigan-Wagner bill, will be re-introduced into both houses of
legislation when Congress next convenes. Popular interest in the
bill is ever growing and Mr. White feels that eventually the
bill will be brought to a vote. Organizations with memberships
of forty-two million have indorsed the efforts of Mr. White and
the group actively concerned with the bill.
“I have received a great deal of assistance
from many Catholic members of Congress, including Representative
Clare G. Fenerty of Pennsylvania, Joseph A. Gavagan of New York,
William P. Connery of Massachusetts, Raymond McKeough of
Illinois, Edward Kenney of New Jersey and Martin Sweeny of Ohio,
On the other hand, there are many Catholics who render only lip
service to the cause. They have not been concerned with the
fight to bring the bill on the floor of Congress, but they may
perhaps vote for it when others have brought it to a vote.”
In reply to a question, Mr. White attributed
this indifference on the part of so many Congressmen to the fact
that their constituents fail to support the bill.
Speaking of the effects of the bill, Mr.
White declared that the bill is not a complete cure. “No
legislation is,” he stated. “We have laws against murder,
yet murder continues. But murder, unlike lynching has always had
universal condemnation. One of the achievements of the
anti-lynching bill would be to put an end to the possibility of
unprosecuted, unpunished lynchings. Lynching thereafter would
have no possible public sanction. It would be stamped with
federal disapproval.”
Mr. White commenting upon action taken by the
Interracial Review,
said, “I am very much impressed with the attitude of the
Interracial Review in its recent editorials on minorities
and mob violence. I hope that this is the beginning of a more
lively and continual interest on the part of the Catholic press
in America. With the main body of Catholic opinion behind our
efforts, along with assistance already given by other groups,
our contest would be brief and successful. I am happy to tell
you of the considerable aid given by Mother Katherine Drexel and
her sister, Mrs. Louise Morrell, in this issue. They have also
rendered valuable assistance in the work of Negro education and
in the relief of
Negroes in the area of the levee control project on the
Mississippi. Mother Katherine’s flaming spirit is a great
inspiration to all of us who are working for the welfare of the
Negro group in America.”
It was on this note that the interview with
Mr. White was concluded. In his own person, he seemed to
epitomize the spirit of the whole movement for the advancement
of the Negro in this country. With outstanding executive
abilities, he is eminently fitted for the work which is his, for
he has the power not only to unite the members of his own race
but also to draw behind them, in a wall of support, men and
women of other races, all to strive for the same high cause and
noble ideal.
Source: Interracial Review,
September of 1946
* * *
* *
Bill
Moyers Interviews Douglass A. Blackmon
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/06202008/watch2.html
Douglas A. Blackmon,
Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the
Civil War to World War II (2008)
* * *
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update 2 July
2008 |
