Racial Tension Still Strong In South

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28895, 15 May 1959, Page 17

Racial Tension Still Strong In South

[Specially written for N.Z.P.A. by FRANK OLIVER.)

WASHINGTON, May 13. 1 The recent lynching in Mississippi and the alleged rape in Florida of a 19-year-old negro girl by four white men are both indicative of the racial tension that exists through the South Both cases were disturbing to many people here and to enlightened people in the South. They raised again an ugly spectre on the domestic scene. ; and gave the Communist world ; a chance for adverse propaganda, i of which it took full and immediate advantage. One writer calls lynching “an old ritual of white supremacy.” , In 1892 the number of negroes , lynched was 162. As late as 1937 there were seven cases, and the number fell to two in 1950. Not . a single case of lynching occurred in the South between 1952

and 1958, that is, of the gaolatorming type in which prisoners awaiting trial are yanked out and strung up on a rope thrown over the branch of a tree. Negroes were murdered in those years, but there was no so-called “classic” type lynching Considered Extinct Lynching was considered to be an extinct crime. Where once the leaders of Southern communities encouraged or even participated in lynchings, says a correspondent of the “New York Times,” today they frown on this kind of lawlessness, considering it a threat to the peace needed for economic growth. A big factor in the decline of lynching has been the so-called Lindbergh Anti-Kidnapping Act. This Act enabled the Federal Bureau of Investigation to enter such cases, which were no longer solely in the hands of local law enforcement, agencies. More and more lynching participants were arrested, tried and given stiff sentences, whereas in earlier years they participated knowing they were in no practical danger of arrest and punishment. Education, respect for the law, and greater awareness of the rights of human beings under the law, all played a part in the decline of lynching. In addition, alert officials took steps to prevent lynching. Southern political leaders in late years have denounced lynching. though they have opposed legislation making it a Federal offence. Moderate officials in the South have tried to prevent lynchings, and often succeeded, because they contend that unchecked lawlessness in any field threatens the very basis of government. Another factor in the reduction of such violence is that even bitter opponents of integration known that racial violence hurts their case. The “New York Times’* re-

ports from its Southern correspondents that popular opposition to lynching is fairly general throughout the urban South, but there are areas where the crime is covertly approved, particularly where a negro is accused of rape or attempted rape of a white woman. In Florida, there are some whites who feel that the Supreme Court, decision of 1954 about desegregation was bad and wicked, and even go so far as to think the previous Supreme Court decision of half a century ago was wrong. This was the “equal but separate” decision. For many Southerners it should have been, and still should be, “inferior and separate.” These people, undoubtedly a minority, never omit to refer contemptuously to the coloured population as “niggers.”

Majority Revolted But it is recorded that in Mississippi a majority of people were as revolted that Mack Charles Parker was denied fair trial as were people in other parts of the country. One must also record that several newspapers in Florida went out of their way to denounce the alleged rape of the Tallahassee coloured girl by foun white men. In Florida, rape can be punished by death. However, if a jury recommends mercy, the sentence can be any prison term the Judge decides on up to life imprisonment. What worries authorities generally is that lynching and other forms of racial violence sometimes have a contagious quality, and so they are taking special precautions to prevent any further violence, particularly in the areas where the lynching and the alleged rape of the coloured girl took place.

In Tallahassee for instance, a day or two after the four men allegedly attacked the coloured girl, a negro policeman shot a coloured moonshiner who resisted arrest and pulled a weapon. Immediately the area was smothered with policemen to prevent trouble developing. There is no tendency in the South to discount the seriousness of the Poplarville and Tallahassee incidents nor their implications. There is evidence that Southern authorities are generally taking extra precautions against possible further violence, precautions that will continue even when present tensions relax. In Washington, the view is fairly widespread that these instances of violence in the South will help rather than hinder the passage through this Congress of civil right legislation. Both cases point the need for such legislation, and both cases add weight to the argument of those who want such legislation passed.