History paper

Printed in La Correspondance Internationale, No. 59, 1924. 52 K Ho Chi Minh on

Revolution

LYNCHING* A Little-known Aspect of American Civilization

It is well known that the black race is the most oppressed and most exploited of

the human family. It is well known that the spread of capitalism and the discovery

of the New World had as an immediate result the rebirth of slavery which was, for

centuries, a scourge for the Negroes and a bitter disgrace for mankind.

What everyone does not perhaps know, is that after sixty-five years of so-called

emancipation, American Negroes still endure atrocious moral and material

sufferings, of which the most cruel and horrible is the custom of lynching. The

word "lynching" comes from Lynch. Lynch was the name of a planter in Virginia,

a landlord and judge. Availing himself of the troubles of the War of Independence,

he took the control of the whole district into his hands. He inflicted the most

savage punishment, without trial or process of law, on Loyalists and Tories.

Thanks to the slavetraders, the Ku Klux Klan, and other secret societies, the illegal

and barbarous practice of lynching is spreading and continuing widely in the States

of the American Union. It has become more inhuman since the emancipation of the

Blacks, and is especially directed at the latter.

Imagine a furious horde. Fists clenched, eyes bloodshot, mouths foaming, yells,

insults, curses. ... This horde is transported with the wild delight of a crime to be

committed without risk. They are armed with sticks, torches, revolvers, ropes,

knives, scissors, vitriol, daggers; in a word, with all that can be used to kill or

wound. Imagine in this human sea a flotsam of black flesh pushed about, beaten,

trampled underfoot, torn, slashed, insulted, tossed hither and thither, bloodstained,

dead. The horde are the lynchers. The human rag is the Black, the victim.

In a wave of hatred and bestiality, the lynchers drag the Black to a wood or a

public place. They tie him to a tree, pour kerosene over him, cover him with

inflammable material. While waiting for the fire to be kindled, they smash his

teeth, one by one. Then they gouge out his eyes. Little tufts of crinkly hair are torn

from his head, carrying away with them bits of skin, baring a bloody skull. Little

pieces of flesh come off his body, already contused from the blows. The Black can

no longer shout: his tongue has been swollen by a red hot iron. His whole body

ripples, trembling, like a half-crushed snake. A slash with a knife: one of his ears

falls to the ground. . . . Oh! How black he is! How awful! And the ladies tear at his

face. . . . "Light up," shouts someone. "Just enough to cook him slowly," adds

another. The Black is roasted, browned, burned.

But he deserves to die twice instead of once. He is therefore hanged, or more

exactly, what is left of his corpse is hanged. And all those who were not able to

help with the cooking applaud now.

Hurrah!

When everybody has had enough, the corpse is brought down. The rope is cut into

small pieces which will be sold for three or five dollars each. Souvenirs and lucky

charms quarreled over by ladies. "Popular justice," as they say over there, has been

done. Calmed down, the crowd congratulate the "organizers," then stream away

slowly and cheerfully, as if after a feast, make appointments with one another for

the next time.

While on the ground, stinking of fat and smoke, a black head, mutilated, roasted,

deformed, grins horribly and seems to ask the setting sun, "Is this civilization?"

Some Statistics

From 1889 to 1919, 2,600 Blacks were lynched, including 51 women and girls and

ten former Great War soldiers. Among 78 Blacks lynched in 1919, 11 were burned

alive, three burned after having been killed, 31 shot, three tortured to death, one cut

into pieces, one drowned, and 11 put to death by various means. Georgia heads the

list with 22 victims, Mississippi follows with 12. Both have also three lynched

soldiers to their credit. Of 11 burned alive, the first State has four and the second

two. Out of 34 cases of systematic, premeditated and organized lynching, it is still

Georgia that holds first place with five. Mississippi comes second with three.

Among the charges brought against the victims of 1919, we note: one of having

been a member of the League of Non-Partisans (independent farmers); one of

having distributed revolutionary publications; one of expressing his opinion on

lynchings too freely; one of having criticized the clashes between Whites and

Blacks in Chicago; one of having been known as a leader of the cause of the

Blacks; one for not getting out of the way and thus frightening a white child who

was in a motorcar. In 1920, there were fifty lynchings, and in 1923, twenty-eight.

These crimes were all motivated by economic jealousy. Either the Negroes in the

area were more prosperous than the Whites, or the black workers would not let

themselves be exploited thoroughly. In all cases, the principal culprits were never

troubled, for the simple reason that they were always incited, encouraged, spurred

on, then protected, by the politicians, financiers, and authorities, and above all, by

the reac- tionary press. When a lynching was to take place or had taken place, the

press seized upon it as a good occasion to increase the number of copies printed. It

related the affair with a wealth of detail. Not the slightest reproach to the criminals.

Not a word of pity for the victims. Not a commentary. The New Orleans States of

June 26, 1919, published a headline running right across the front page in letters

five inches high: "Today a Negro Will Be Burned by 3,000 Citizens." And

immediately underneath, in very small print: "Under a strong escort, the Kaiser has

taken flight with the Crown Prince." The Jackson Daily News of the same date

published across the first two columns of its front page in big letters: "Negro J. H.

to Be Burned by the Crowd at Ellistown This After- noon at 5 p.m." The

newspaper only neglected to add: "The whole population is earnestly invited to

attend." But the spirit is there.

A Few Details This evening at 7:40 p.m., J. H. was tortured with a red-hot iron bar,

then burned. ... A crowd of more than 2,000 people ... many women and children,

were present at the incineration. . . . After the Negro had been bound from behind,

a fire was kindled. A little further away, another fire was kindled in which an iron

bar was placed. When it was red hot, a man took it and applied it to the Black's

body. The latter, terrified, seized the iron with his hands, and the air was

immediately filled with the smell of burning flesh. . . . The red-hot iron having

been applied to several parts of his body, his shouts and groans were heard as far

away as in the town. After several minutes of torture, masked men poured petrol

on him and set fire to the stake. The flames rose and enveloped the Negro who

implored to be finished off with a shot. His supplications provoked shouts of

derision. Chattanooga Times, February 13, 1918.)

15,000 people, men, women, and children, applauded when petrol was poured over

the Negro and the fire lit. They struggled, shouted, and pushed one another to get

nearer the Black. . . . Two of them cut off his ears while the fire began to roast him.

Another tried to cut off his heels. . . . The crowd surged and changed places so that

every one could see the Negro burn. When the flesh was entirely burned, the bones

laid bare and what had been a human being was but a smoking and deformed rag

curling up in the flames, everyone was still there to look (Memphis Press, May 22,

1917.) . . . men of all social classes, women and children, were pres- ent at the

scene. Many ladies of high society followed the crowd from outside the prison,

others joined it from neighboring terraces. . . . When the Negro's corpse fell, the

pieces of rope were hotly contended for. (Vicksburg Evening Post, May 4, 1919.) .

. . someone cut off his ears, another removed his sexual organ. ... He tried to cling

to the rope, his fingers were cut off. While he was being hoisted to a tree, a giant of

a man stabbed his neck; he received at least twenty-five wounds. ... he was several

times hoisted up, then pulled down into the brazier. Finally a man caught him in a

lasso, the end of which was attached to a horse which dragged the corpse through

the streets of Waco. The tree on which the hanging took place was right under a

window of the mayor's house. The latter looked on while the crowd was in action.

All along the way, everyone took part in the mutilation of the Negro. Some struck

him with shovels, pickaxes, bricks, sticks. The body was covered with wounds

from head to foot. A shout of joy escaped from thousands of throats when the fire

was kindled. Some time after, the corpse was hoisted up high in the air, so that

every- one could look at it, which raised a storm of applause. . . . (Crisis, July

1916.)

White Victims of Lynching

It is not only the Blacks, but also the Whites who dare to defend them, such as

Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe—author of "Uncle Tom's Cabin"—who are ill treated.

Elijah Lovejoy was killed, John Brown hanged. Thomas Beach and Stephen Foster

were persecuted, attacked, and imprisoned. Here is what Foster wrote from prison,

"When I look at my damaged In Search of a Mission (1920-24) 55 limbs, I think

that, to hold me, prison will not be necessary for much longer. . . . These last 15

months, their cells have been opened to me four times, 24 times my compatriots

have dragged me out of their churches, twice they have thrown me from the second

floor of their houses; they have damaged my kidneys once; another time they tried

to put me in irons; twice they have made me pay fines; once 10,000 people tried to

lynch me, and dealt me 20 blows on my head, arms and neck. . . ." In 30 years, 708

Whites, including 11 women, have been lynched. Some for having organized

strikes, others for having espoused the cause of the Blacks. Among the collection

of the crimes of American "civilization," lynching has a place of honor.

THE KU KLUX KLAN*

The place of origin of the Ku Klux Klan is the Southern United States.

In May, 1866, after the Civil War, young people gathered together in a small

locality in the State of Tennessee to set up a club. A question of whiling away the

time. This organization was given the name kuklos, a Greek word meaning club.

To Americanize the word, it was changed into Ku Klux. Hence, for more

originality, Ku Klux Klan.

After big social upheavals, the public mind is naturally unsettled. It becomes avid

for new stimuli and inclined to mysticism. The KKK, with its strange garb, its

bizarre rituals, its mysteries, and its secrecy, irresistibly attracted the curiosity of

the Whites in the Southern States and became very popular. It consisted at first of

only a group of snobs and idlers, without political or social purpose. Cunning

elements discov- ered in it a force able to serve their political ambitions. The

victory of the Federal Government had just freed the Negroes and made them

citizens. The agriculture of the South—deprived of its black labor—was short of

hands.

Former landlords were exposed to ruin. The Klansmen pro- claimed the principle

of the supremacy of the white race. Anti-Negro was their only policy. The agrarian

and slave- owning bourgeoisie saw in the Klan a useful agent, almost a savior.

They gave it all the help in their power. The Klan's methods ranged from

intimidation to murder. In the space of three years it committed so many crimes

and misdeeds that a number of those who supported it left it in horror. Toward

1869, under the pressure of public opinion, the Klan was given the sack by its

"Emperor." It had an Emperor, who, nevertheless, had only a purely nominal

authority. The local Klans carried on their own existence and crimes. Professor

Mecklin—to whom we owe these details — said that every page of the thirteen big

volumes containing the investigations into the acts of the Klan in 1871-72,

recorded beatings-up of Blacks or Whites.

These acts of violence were often done out of pure sadism. They were a favorite

entertainment of the Klansmen. A better knowledge of the Klan can be gained and

a better judgment formulated by quoting the speech made by Senator Sherman of

Ohio in the Senate in March, 1871. "Is there," asked Sherman, "a Senator who can

name—in search- ing through the crimes committed through the ages—an

association or gang whose acts and designs are more diabolical or criminal than

those of the Ku Klux Klan? The Ku Klux Klan is a secret association, formed on

oath, and whose members murder, steal, pillage, bully, insult, and threaten. They

commit these crimes not against the strong and the rich but against the poor, the

weak, the harmless, and the defenseless." Yet the Klan lived and "worked" for

forty-odd years with- out too much sensation.

The New Klan

It was in October, 1915, that William Joseph Simmons, the new "Emperor" of the

Klan, together with thirty-four of his friends, brought the KKK to the American

scene again. Its program was 100 per cent Americanism, that is to say, anti-

Catholic, anti-Semite, anti-worker, and anti-Negro. It is to be noted that it was

following the Civil War and the emancipation of the Blacks that the old Ku Klux

Klan saw the light of day, its aim being to bar the freed people's way to a social

life.

During the World War, America enlisted in its army and navy hundreds of

thousands of Blacks who were given promises of social and political reforms and

who, having made the same sacrifices as the Whites, timorously claimed the same

rights. A situation equivalent to "second emancipation." Thereupon the new Klan

sprang up. It was again in the Southern United States—region of big planters and

antiabolitionists, the cradle of serfdom and lynching, the motherland of the old

Klan—that "Emperor" Simmons founded the new "invisible Empire." To an

interviewer, William Joseph Simmons said regarding its objectives, "We are

convinced that to ensure the supremacy of the white race we must wrest from the

Blacks the franchises which have been granted them. The Lord's will is that the

white race shall be superior, and it was by a decree of Providence that Negroes

were created slaves."

Soon after the resurrection of the Klan, more than eighty beatings-up were

recorded in the state of Texas alone, in one year, and ninety-six lynchings. The

Klan flourished especially in Georgia, Mississippi, Texas, Alabama, and Arkansas.

It was in those states that the victims of lynching were most numerous. In 1919, the

Ku Klux Klan burned alive four Negroes in Georgia, two in Mississippi, and one in

Texas. It lynched twenty-two Negroes in Georgia, twelve in Mississippi, ten in

Arkansas, eight in Alabama, and three in Texas. It attacked or pulled down jails to

lynch the Negroes who were kept in custody there five times in Georgia, three in

Al- abama, three in Mississippi, three in Texas, and twice in Arkansas. It lynched

twelve women in Mississippi, seven in Alabama, six in Texas, five in Arkansas,

and five in Georgia. It burned, hanged, drowned, or shot down nine Negro former

armed service personnel. The Klan carried out other lynchings in other States, but

we want to quote only definite figures.

The Decline of the Ku Klux Klan

The Klan is for many reasons doomed to disappear.

1. The Negroes, having learned during the war that they are a force if united, are no

longer allowing their kinsmen to be beaten or murdered with impunity. They are

replying to each attempt at violence by the Klan. In July, 1919, in Washington,

they stood up to the Klan and a wild mob. The battle raged in the capital for four

days. In August, they fought for five days against the Klan and the mob in

Chicago. Seven reg- iments were mobilized to restore order. In September, the

government was obliged to send federal troops to Omaha to put down similar

strife. In various other States the Negroes defended themselves no less

energetically.

2. Like its predecessor, the new Klan has so shocked public opinion by its excesses

that those who had approved of or joined it at the beginning are leaving it. Its

internal quarrels, its scandals and financial frauds ended by sickening even the

most indifferent and most tolerant people. The Senate has been compelled to

prosecute it. Even bourgeois newspapers such as the New York World, The

Chicago Defender, etc., are attacking it.

3. Its "100 per cent Americanism" and its antiworkerism group it against 20 million

American Catholics, 3 millon Jews, 20 million foreigners, 12 million Negroes, all

decent Americans, the whole working class of America. At the last congress of

Negro Associations, the following motion was carried: "We declare the Ku Klux

Klan an enemy of Humanity; we declare that we are determined to fight it to the

end and to make common cause with all the foreign workmen in America as well

as with all those who are persecuted by it." On the other hand, the emigration of

Negroes from the agricultural South to the industrial North has forced the

planters—threatened with ruin through shortage of manpower — to alleviate the

lot of the black workmen, and, consequently, to condemn more and more often the

methods and acts of violence of their agent: the Klan.

4. Finally, the Ku Klux Klan has all the defects of clandestine and reactionary

organizations without their qualities. It has the mysticism of Freemasonry, the

mummeries of Catholicism, the brutality of Fascism, the illegality of its 568

various associations, but it has neither doctrine, nor program, nor vitality, nor

discipline.