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terrorize or beat any person, a year and a half later there had been no prosecutions under this Act.29

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Witnesses from Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina told the same story. The Provisional Governor of Alabama testified that he knew of only one indictment of persons responsible for violence against Negroes and in that case the defendants were acquitted.30 The former Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court stated that he did not know "of any case where they [the Ku Klux Klan] have been punished." 31 A former sheriff of Habersham County, Georgia, testified that there had been five or six fatal shootings of Negroes in his county, but that no one had been punished. When asked whether these acts were committed openly, he replied, "There was no masking, and no necessity for masking to shoot a negro in that county.' The Attorney General of South Carolina testified, "There have been a great many outrages committed, and a great many homicides, and a great many whippings. . . [but] no convictions, and no

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In its report the Committee concluded that although southern courts and juries generally administered justice fairly, in cases involving the Ku Klux Klan "the evidence is equally decisive that redress cannot be obtained against those who commit crimes in disguise and at night." The reasons were difficulty of identification, perjured testimony, the Klan oath, and "the terror inspired by their acts, as well as the public sentiment in their favor in many localities, [which] paralyzes the arm of civil power.'

THE JIM CROW ERA

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The 1871 investigation of Klan activity was the last full-scale hearing by the Federal Government on racial violence in the South.

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Congressional attention in later years has focused on the narrow problem of lynching. This most violent form of racial attack, defined as an illegal killing by a group of persons "under the pretext of service to justice, race or tradition,' "35 became a recurring subject of congressional investigation. Between 1920 and 1950 congressional committees conducted numerous hearings on antilynching bills and received testimony on the incidence of lynching and the performance of local law enforcement officials.36

Although lynching statistics do not tell the whole story, they do provide some evidence of the more general problem of racial violence and the failure of law enforcement. During the period between 1881, when the first "Jim Crow" law was enacted,38 and 1960, when the "sit-in" campaigns began, more than 4,700 lynchings were reported in the United States-3,441 of the victims were Negroes. More than three-quarters of these lynchings occurred in the 11 States of the Old Confederacy, where more than fourfifths of the victims were Negroes. The worst year for lynching was 1892, when 230 such deaths were reported. Since then the number has steadily declined. Not more than 10 have been re

35 This is the definition in 1951 Negro Year Book 276, published by Tuskegee Institute. The standard lynching figures come from research conducted by Tuskegee Institute.

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Hearings Before the House Committee on the Judiciary, 66th Cong., 2d Sess., ser. 14 (1920); Hearings Before the House Committee on the Judiciary, 67th Cong., 1st Sess., ser. 10, pt. 1 (1921); Hearings on S. 121 Before a Subcommittee of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, 69th Cong., 1st Sess. (1926); Hearings on S. 24 Before a Subcommittee of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, 74th Cong., 1st Sess. (1935); Hearings on H.R. 801 Before a Subcommittee of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, 76th Cong., 3d Sess. (1940); Hearings on S. 42, S. 1352, and S. 1465 Before a Senate Subcommittee on the Judiciary, 80th Cong., 2d Sess. (1948); and Hearings Before Subcommittee No. 3 of the House Committee on the Judiciary, 81st Cong., 1st and 2d Sess., ser. 18 (1950).

See also Hearings on the Ku Klux Klan Before the House Committee on Rules, 67th Cong., 1st Sess. (1921); and Hearings on S. Res. 97 Before a Subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Privileges and Elections, 68th Cong., 1st Sess. (1925), an investigation of Klan influence and violence relating to the nomination and election of Earle B. Mayfield, U.S. Senator from Texas.

37 See, e.g., Alexander, The Ku Klux Klan in the Southwest (1965); Ames, The Changing Character of Lynching (1942); Chadbourn, Lynching and the Law (1933); Raper, The Tragedy of Lynching (1933); White, Rope and Faggot (1929).

38 Tenn. Laws 1881, ch. 155, at 211.

30 Freedom to the Free 176–77.

ported in any year since 1935, and in several years during the 1950's there were no reported lynchings.40 Lynchings frequently resulted from the failure of local law enforcement officers to protect a prisoner in their custody. Moreover, in most cases the lynch mob went unpunished, even when the victims were taken from law enforcement officers or when members of the mob bragged about it afterwards." From 1882 to 1940 there were only 40 cases in which lynchers were prosecuted; convictions were obtained in only a handful of these cases.*2

RECENT EVENTS

Although there have been few reported lynchings in recent years, such incidents as the murder of three civil rights workers in Neshoba County, Mississippi, in June 1964, clearly indicate that serious acts of violence may result from attempts to exercise Federal rights. During the past 10 years, unofficial reports on the extent and nature of violence show that the increased attempts by Negroes to gain equal rights have been met by repeated violent attack.

The Southern Regional Council estimated there were a total of 225 incidents of racially motivated violence in the South from January 1955 through January 1959. These included six Negroes killed and 73 persons (some of them white) shot,

40 1961 Report of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Justice 267-68 [hereinafter cited as Justice Report]. In addition to successful lynchings, there were attempted lynchings which were prevented by law enforcement officials or private citizens. From 1913 to 1929, when there were 730 lynchings, an additional 569 were reportedly prevented; from 1937 to 1951, when there were 53 lynchings, an additional 334 were reportedly prevented. Southern Committee on the Study of Lynching, Lynchings and What They Mean 25 (1931); Raper, op. cit. supra note 37, at 32; 1951 Negro Year Book 278.

"Hearings on S. 121, supra note 36, at 42.

12 Hearings on H.R. 801, supra note 36, at 60. For other statistics of prosecution for lynching and attempted lynching, see Chadbourn, op. cit. supra note 37, at 13–16; Hearings on S. 121, supra note 36, at 19; Hearings Before Subcommittee No. 3, supra note 36, at 33. For specific cases of failure to prosecute, see id. at 51, 146–47, 149. For cases of such failure in situations other than lynching in South Carolina, see Hearings on H.R. 801, supra at 98.

beaten, or stabbed. Sixty homes were bombed, burned or otherwise attacked, and six schools and eight churches were bombed or burned. In only a few cases were any persons arrested or prosecuted by local authorities.*3

The number of incidents increased greatly after 1961 as a result of organized civil rights activity. In Mississippi alone, from January 1961 through May 1964, more than 150 serious incidents of racial violence were reported." In the summer of 1964, when civil rights organizations conducted a concerted drive in Mississippi, reports were received of 35 shootings, 30 bombings, 35 church burnings, 80 beatings, and at least 6 murders. In only a few cases were those responsible arrested or prosecuted by local authorities."

The effect of these incidents extends beyond the victims and has a grave impact on the entire community. Every assault or murder which goes unpunished reinforces the legacy of violence— the knowledge that it is dangerous for a Negro to depart from traditional ways. Thus, a vicious attack upon one Negro may deter others from challenging the accepted framework of subservient behavior and status.

In its hearing and staff investigations the Commission sought to determine whether the failure of State and local law enforcement officials to arrest and seek convictions of persons responsible for racial violence constituted a discriminatory failure to enforce State criminal laws. The results of the Commission's inquiries are presented in the following chapters.

43 Southern Regional Council, et al. Intimidation, Reprisal, and Violence 15–30 (1959). "News Release, Voter Education Project, March 31, 1963 (mimeo); U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Staff Memorandum, "A Chronology of Violence in Mississippi," dated March 23, 1964.

15 Herbers, Communiqué from Mississippi, N.Y. Times, Nov. 8, 1964, § 6 (Magazine),

p. 34.

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