Microfilm Reel 285, File 543, "Lynching"

Topeka, Kans.,

Feb. 21, 1918

Hon. Charles Curtis, U. S. Senator, Washington, D.C.

My dear Senator:

Enclosed herewith you will find a copy of a telegram which we sent to the president on February 12th, and also copy of the letter which we received from the secretary to the President, in reply.

Now we cannot understand why such a telegram should be referred to the attorney general when we asked a blank question of the president to give an expression on such outrages; and we see no reason why he could not make this a war measure at this time by calling upon the governors of the several states to appeal to their citizens to desist from such outrages, but our question is artfully dodged by the secretary and is referred to the attorney general department. Now as a newspaper editor and a member of the race, we do not like to be side-tracked this way or to be made a fool of. We would be glad if you would take the matter up with the president and ascertain if he is against this custom and if it is injurious to his office to at least call the attention of the American people to these outrageous practices and condemn the same. We know if he would do this it would have a wholesome effect and stop lynching; and if you would impress upon him this thought, it would be of great help to my race who are the sufferers of all these outrages. There is never any white man tortured or burned at the stake but every once in a while some colored man is taken out and outraged.

You might call the attention of the president to the treatment that is being accorded the Belgians by the Germans and in order for this country to make any criticism, we should not be guilty of similar offenses.

Very truly yours, Nick Chiles, Editor The Topeka Plaindealer.

Enc.

Feb 25 Ack

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(COPY OF TELEGRAM)

Feb. 12, 1918

To Hon. Woodrow Wilson, Pres. U. S. A., White House, Washington, D. C.

Sir: The daily press reports a lynching, burning and torture with hot irons of a colored man, Jim McIlherron at Estill Springs, Tennessee on the birthday of the late president, Lincoln. The colored people pray that you take this and many other outrages committed upon them in the Southland and make it a war measure. This mob composed of over a thousand white men and women. We do not want to surpass Germany in her Belgium outrages. We know the spirit of Lincoln is frowning on these outrages and thank you to frown with him. The colored people are loyal to you and the flag in this crisis and asked no more of you. We know you can call the American people's attention if nothing more.

(Signed) Nick Chiles, Editor The Topeka Plaindealer, Topeka, Kans.

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(COPY OF REPLY TO TELEGRAM)

The White House Washington, February 14, 1918

My dear Sir:

Allow me to acknowledge the receipt of your telegram of the 12th instant and to say that it is being brought to the attention of the Attorney General.

Sincerely yours, (Signed) J. P. Tummulty, Secretary to the President

Mr. Nick Chiles, Topeka, Kansas.

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THE WHITE HOUSE FEB 25 1918 RECEIVED

Ackgd 2/26/18

February 25, 1818.

Hon. Woodrow Wilson, The White House.

My dear Mr. President:

I am enclosing herewith self-explanatory telegram from the pastor of a colored church in my district, for your attention.

Sincerely yours, R. W. Austin

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RECEIVED AT HOUSE CORRIDOR PHONE BRANCH 251 64WYE 37 12 EXTRA

MARYVILLE TENN 92OA FEB 25 1918

CONCRESSMAN R Q AUSTIN WASHINGTON DC

WE THE COLORED CITIZENS OF MARYVILLE TENN ASK YOU TO IMPLORE THE PRESIDENT TO USE HIS BEST ENDEAVORS TO STOP THE LYNCHING OF OUR PEOPLE

STPAUL A M E Z CHURCH R J EUEKNER PASTOR E S CANSTE C R QUOOD MD

1123A

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THE WHITE HOUSE MAR 17 1918 RECEIVED

Atlanta, Georgia, March 5, 1918.

Hon. Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States, The White House, Washington, D. C.

Mr. President: During the past three decades nearly three thousand American colored men, women and children have suffered butchery and death in almost every conceivable form at the hands of the lynchers of America. Last year alone the number thus murdered was two hundred twenty-two. The reported causes for such appalling brutality run the gamut from alleged violation of the honor of white women to disputing the word of white men. The fact however that only about five per cent of these murders are reputed to have been inflicted upon accused violators of womanhood argues almost conclusively that the desire to protect womanhood is almost negligible among the so-called causes of lynchings.

We accordingly regard lynching as worse than Prussianism, which we are at war to destroy. Lynching is not a cure for crime, either imaginary or real. It decreases faith in the boasted justice of our so-called democratic institutions. It widens the frightful chasm of unfriendly and suspicious feeling between the races and positively foments the spirit of antipathy and resentment. We are accused of concealing criminals. Who has concealed the many criminals that have mercilessly murdered these three thousand defenseless men, women and children of our race? That these murderers frequently ply their trade in broad daylight and in plain view of the entire citizenry even does not facilitate their punishment or detection. Within less than one year one state alone has tortured and burned at the stake three colored men without even the semblance of a trial or an effort to apprehend and punish the murderers. In the last instance an entire helpless colored population was marched around the fire amid fumes of a burning human being and put on notice that as that black man was suffering they too should fear to suffer. Thus the defiant lynching giant strides on apace. While we are sacrificing the best blood of our sons upon our nation's altar to help destroy Prussianism beyond the seas, we call upon you to use your high offices to destroy the lynching institution at our doors.

We are the one group of American people, than whom there is none more loyal, which is marked out for discrimination, humiliation and abuse. In great patriotic and humanitarian movements, in public carriers, in federal service, the treatment accorded us is humiliating, dehumanizing and reprehensible in the extreme. This persistent and unreasonable practice is but a thrust at the colored man's self-respect-— the object being not merely to separate the races but to impress us with the idea of supposed natural inferiority. Such demoralizing discrimination is not only a violation of the fundamental rights of citizens of the United States, but the persistent segregation of any element of our country's population into a separate and distinct group on the sole basis of color is creating a condition under which this nation cannot long endure.

When we refiect upon these brutalities and indignities we remember they are due to the fact that in almost every southern state we have systematically, by law or chicanery, been deprived of the right of that very manhood suffrage which genuine democracy would quarantee to every citizen in the republic. This propaganda of filching from colored Americans the ballot is but a supreme

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