and flashlight and was standing on a chair, taking photographs of the celebrations. The defendants were delighted and jumped up on chairs to pose for him, their friends standing below them and waving and smiling toward the camera, so that they could share in the glory. In these pictoral revels, Mr. Culbertson was well to the fore. First he posed with the Hurds. Then he formed part of a group that neither Greenville nor the CIO could greatly enjoy if they should see it in Life. On a chair stood Fat Joy, bulging and swelling with pleasure, and on his right stood the bondsman and on his left Mr. Culbertson, baring their teeth in ice-cold geniality, and each laying one hard hand on the boy's soft bulk and raising the other as if to lead a cheer. It is unlikely that Mr. Culbertson was unaware of the cynical expression on Clark's face, and he knew perfectly well what other members of the press were thinking of him. But he did not care. Life is a national weekly. Mr. Culbertson does not want to be a national figure. He means to be a highly successful local figure. My future, he was plainly saying to himself, is in Greenville and this is good enough for Greenville, so let's go. It will be astonishing if he is right. At that, he was a more admirable figure than Mr. Wofford, however, because at least his credo had brought him out into the open standing alongside the people whose fees he had taken and whose cause he had defended. But on hearing the verdict, Mr. Wofford, who possibly has an intention of becoming a national figure, had vanished with the speed of light and was doubtless by this time at some convenient distance, wiping his mouth and saying, "Lord, I did not eat."

There could be no more pathetic scene than these taxi drivers and their wives, the deprived children of difficult history, who were rejoicing at a salvation that was actually a deliverance to danger. For an hour or two, the trial had built up in them that sense of law which is as necessary to man as bread and water and a roof. They had known killing for what it is; a hideousness that begets hideousness. They had seen that the most generous impulse, not subjected to the law, may engender a shameful deed. For indeed they were sick at heart when what had happened at the slaughter pen was described in open court. But they had been saved from the electric chair and from prison by men who had conducted their defense without taking a minute off to state or imply that even if a man is a murderer one must not murder him and that murder is foul. These people had been plunged back into chaos. They had been given by men whom they naively trusted the most wildly false ideas of what conduct the community will tolerate. It is to be remembered that in their statements these men fully inculpated each other. At present they are unified by the trial, but when the tension is over, there will come into their minds that they were not so well treated as they might have been by their friends. Then the propaganda for murder which was so freely dished out to them during their trial may bear its fruit. Not only have they, along with everyone else, been encouraged to use the knife and the gun in ways that may get them into trouble-for it is absurd to think of Greenville as a place whose tolerance of disorder is unlimited-but they have been exposel to a greater danger of having the knife and the gun used on them. The kind of assault by which Mr. Brown died is likely to be encouraged by the atmosphere that now hangs over Greenville. These wretched people have been utterly betrayed.

It was impossible to watch this scene of delirium, which had been conjured up by a mixture of clownishness, ambition, and sullen malice, without feeling a desire for action. Supposing that one lived in a town, decent but tragic, which had been trodden into the dust and had risen again, and that there were men in that town who threatened every force in that town which raised it up and encouraged every force which dragged it back into the dust; then lynching would be a joy. It would be, indeed, a very great delight to go through the night to the home of such a man, with a few loyal friends, and walk in so softly that he was surprised and say to him, "You meant to have your secret bands to steal in on your friends and take them out into the darkness, but it is not right that you should murder what we love without paying the price, and the law is not punishing you as it should." And when we had driven him to some place where we would not be disturbed, we would make him confess his treacheries and the ruses by which he had turned the people's misfortunes to his profit. It would be only right that he should purge himself of his sins. Then we would kill him, but not quickly, for there would be no reason that a man who had caused such pain should himself be allowed to flee quickly to the shelter of death. The program would have seemed superb had it not been for two decent Greenville people, a man and a woman, who stopped as they went out of the courtroom and spoke to me, because they were so miserable that they had to speak to someone. "This is only the

beginning," the man said. He was right. It was the beginning of a number of odd things. Irrational events breed irrational events. The next day I was to see a Negro porter at the parking place of a resort hotel near Greenville insult white guests as I have never seen a white hotel employee insult guests; there were to be minor assaults all over the State; there was to be the lynching party in North Carolina. "It is like a fever," said the woman, tears standing in her eyes behind her glasses. "It spreads, it's an infection, it's just like a fever." I was prepared to admit that she, too, was right.-REBECCA WEST.

STATEMENT OF UNITED OFFICE AND PROFESSIONAL WORKERS OF AMERICA, CIO, ON ANTILYNCHING BILL, H. R. 3488

As the report of the President's Committee on Civil Rights succinctly stated: "Vital to the integrity of the individual and to the stability of a democratic society is the right of each individual to physical freedom, to security against illegal violence, and to a fair, orderly legal process."

The United Office and Professional Workers of America, representing 75,000 organized white-collar workers, is proud of the American heritage of freedom and equality for all. Because we believe that this fundamental concept, the cornerstone of a truly democratic government, must be safeguarded and translated into positive, concrete measures, we are voicing at this hearing our strongest demand and support for the immediate passage of an effective antilynch law.

The proclamation of equal and impartial guaranty of civil rights is belied by the stark fact that in every year since 1882 lynchings have taken place in the United States. During 1946, six American Negroes were murdered by lynching mobs. According to records maintained by Tuskegee Institute, 42 out of 48 States of our Nation, at some time during the past 65 years, have been the scenes of lynchings.

The occurrence of such acts of violence in per se is an alarming indication of the extent to which racial prejudice pervades our country. But even more serious is the common knowledge that in the great majority of instances, the lynchers have not been apprehended, prosecuted, or punished. In no case has the death penalty been imposed for these murders during the past decade.

Indeed, in most instances, as the President's Civil Rights Committee pointed out, crimes of this character have been condoned, directly or indirectly, by local officials who are charged theoretically with maintaining law, order, and justice for their entire constituency.

This immunity from punishment breeds further recourse to the unbridled expression of mob rule and intensifies the atmosphere of terror in which the Negro lives. This continued threat of violence spells disaster for our Nation as distrust, fear, and hatred mount. So long as the machinery of justice remains inoperative for any section of our citizenry, the unity of our country and its hope for peace and democratic growth are imperiled.

Not only is lynching a moral and social outrage to be denounced and eliminated from the life of a civilized, Christian Nation. Evaluated politically, lynching is a crime against the most cherished, traditional principles of the American people, as defined by the founders of this country. Too long have we countenanced the mockery of the Bill of Rights by the white supremacists and those who make capital of racial hatred. The Government of the United States is steadily losing its prestige and respect, not only among its own decent-minded population. The United States occupies the extremely vulnerable position of "protector of individual liberties," challenging the representative of nature of governments abroad, the existence of freedom and dignity of man, when within its own borders its record is bloodstained with outright denial of legal protection our negligence and unconcern for the personal safety of this country's largest racial minority group. The United Office and Professional Workers Union of America has a stake in the preservation and extension of democracy in this country. Our major concern is improving the working conditions of all white-collar workers regardless of race, color, or creed, to the end that they may enjoy fully a standard of living commensurate with our great productive capacity.

It is a notorious and shameful fact that white-collar fields of employment, such as banking, insurance, engineering, etc., are virtually barred to Negroes, and in general, Negroes are excluded from opportunity of promotions and opportunity in office and professional fields.

The continued existence of lynching in the United States contributes immeasurably to the social pattern that brings about job discrimination, and Fed

eral Government action and legislation aginst lynching will continue to the elimination of job discrimination.

Lynching is, moreover, an aspect of general intimidation and coercion which is aimed at maintaining the special privilege and power of intrenched wealth and thus, it attacks the social well-being of all of our population, particularly working people in all occupations and all geographical localities.

The "American way," as our union envisions it, is one in which the basic constitutional guaranties and the "four freedoms" have real meaning to all the people of our land. The peaceful development of our economy to a level of prosperity and plenty for all can proceed only in an atmosphere free from fear and terror. The several State and local governments have refused to recognize and assume responsibilty for protecting its citizenry from mob violence. It is therefore incumbent upon the Federal Government to take the leadership in this national problem and to establish, without equivocation, measures which will abolish the heinous crime of lynching. The Federal law must provide for severe penalties, full authority and adequate funds to insure effective administration. There can be no compromise on methods of handling this important issue.

Without question, lynching is the overt expression of racial hatred and misunderstanding which has its roots in the economic ills of our Nation. It is prevalent in the Southern States, an area of great poverty, ignorance, and insecurity of the masses of workers, where frustration and discontent can be exploited to the extreme.

To destroy the roots of prejudice, major economic reforms must be instituted, one of which is a program of maximum production and full employment whereby the working and living standards of our entire labor force are raised to a level of health, comfort and decency. To this end we urge prompt enactment of social welfare legislation designed to improve the status of millions of American working families. Having tackled the pressing problem of meeting the housing, clothing. and food needs of our people, the fuel for the fire of racial tension will diminish. But, in the meantime, at this session of Congress, the blot of lynching must be wiped from our land, and machinery set up to guarantee every man, woman, and child the primary, preliminary right of safety and security of the person.

STATEMENT SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR SCHUTZER, EXECUTIVE SECRETARY AMERICAN LABOR PARTY OF NEW YORK STATE, CONCERNING PENDING ANTILYNCHING LEGISLATION

The American Labor Party of New York State urges prompt enactment of H. R. 3488, the Case-Wagner antilynch bill.

The use of the word "prompt" is not routine. It is actuated by the startling fact that since 1921 a campaign has been waged to secure passage of an effective anti-lynch law. Thus, for more than one-quarter of a century, this urgently needed legislation has been delayed, postponed and converted into a bi-partisan political football and a subject of callous parliamentary maneuvers and filibusters. The continued failure of Congress to enact a Federal anti-lynch law since 1921, regardless of whether Congress has been under control of the Democratic or the Republican Parties during that time, is sharply underscored by an examination of the following statistics concerning recorded lynchings in each of the intervening years, as follows:

The sham excuse that has been used in past years to block Federal action is that lynching should be punished under the laws of the respective States. The hollowness of this excuse is amply demonstrated not only by deliberate unwillingness of State law enforcement officers to apprehend and prosecute those guilty of lynchings, but more emphatically by the actual collaboration of State police officials. with lynch mobs.

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To cite a recent example of the futility of so-called State action, I refer this committee to the case early in 1947 when a mob of white taxi drivers in a South Carolina town lynched a Negro accused of murder of a taxi driver. The mob was alleged to have included 31 individuals. Of this total 26 were duly identified and arrested. Prosecution did not begin until 2 months after the lynching. All the accused were acquitted, including the individual who was alleged to have fired a shotgun blast at the victim.

The American Labor Party respectfully submits to this committee that the issue here is not merely one of outlawing lynching. The issue involves the entire rotten Jim Crow structure of discrimination which has long defaced our national scene. The issue, moreover, involves the wholesale use of racial restrictive covenants, official discrimination in the armed forces, denial of equal educational opportunities to the Negro people, and the calculated practice of segregation which is openly used by private and Government employers. The issue, finally, also includes the question of abolishing the poll tax, which now disfranchises millions of Americans, both white and Negro, and perpetuates private elections of reactionary candidates in a feudal rather than a democratic pattern.

For the foregoing reasons the American Labor Party urges immediate enactment of legislation to outlaw lynching, prohibit racial restrictive covenants, end discrimination in the armed forces, and guarantee full and equal civil rights to the Negro people in the fields of employment, education, housing, and social security.

HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE,

INTERNATIONAL WORKERS ORDER,
New York 11, N. Y., February 4, 1948.

SUBCOMMITTEE ON LEGISLATION AGAINST LYNCHING,

Old House Office Building, Washington, D. C.

GENTLEMEN: The International Workers Order, an interracial fraternal benefit organization, adds its voice in support of Federal legislation to end lynching and the Case antilynching bill, H. R. 3488, specifically, for the consideration of the subcommittee and the Judiciary Committee.

We urge immediately favorable action for the passage of the antilynching bill introduced by Representative Clifford Case, of New Jersey. Passage of this bill is a matter of the greatest urgency. Delay is not only dangerous to the Nation but, considering the terrible fate of lynch victims, is inhuman.

The horror of lynching is typified in the lynching outside of Monroe, La., on July 20, 1946. Roger Malcolm, the accused young Negro, released from jail on bond, was taken by a mob of unmasked white men, Taken with Malcolm was his wife and a friend, George Dorsey, a Negro veteran with overseas service. and Dorsey's wife. The lynchers fired three volleys from shotguns and pistols and 60 bullets into the two Negro men and their wives. No one has been indicted for this revolting murder of four Negroes.

The record of lynchings and near lynchings in the United States is a gruesome mockery of the words of those American statesmen and radio-press representatives who have boasted to the world about our democracy as a model to follow. The menace of lynching is as great today as it has been in the past, if not greater. Between 1936 and 1946, 43 persons were lynched in the United States. From 1937 to 1946, however, 226 persons, 200 of whom were Negroes, were saved from lynch mobs. In addition to this, many Negroes were cruelly murdered in cases which are technically excluded from lynching statistics, while in some cases lynchings are successfully concealed.

A Federal antilynching law is essential, also, because State and local police and law-enforcement agencies have failed to prosecute known or confessed murderers. Of the 43 persons lynched in the period 1936-46, the majority of those guilty of these crimes were not even prosecuted, a few were convicted, but not one paid the death penalty. No one was even indicted for the Monroe, La., murders. In the lynching of two Negroes at Minden, La., in 1946, five persons, including two deputy sheriffs, after indictment and trial, were all acquitted. At Greenville, S. C., 31 persons, tried for the lynching of a Negro youth, Willie Earle, were all acquitted although a majority had admitted their guilt.

Although the Federal law-enforcement agencies are empowered under sections 51 and 52 of the civil rights law, to intervene in lynch cases, the FBI does not recognize the provisions as mandatory for the prosecution of lynchers. Hence, a Federal antilynching law is an absolute necessity to remove this great danger to American lives and civil rights.

Lynch murders are more than a shocking violation of the rights of individuals to freedom and safety of person, to due process of law, and to equal justice. Lynching is an attack upon democracy itself, undermining the democratic rights contained in the Constitution, and attacking minority rights which are inseparable from democracy. The fact that more than 90 percent of those lynched and attacked by lynchers are Negroes shows that underlying this violent technique is the aim of terrorization of whole communities and sections of the population to maintain social and economic inequalities, to prevent them from exercising their constitutional rights of voting, of obtaining equal opportunities for jobs, education, etc. The fact that Negro veterans have been singled out for attack and lynching emphasizes the antidemocratic aims of the lynchers. Lynch rule is one of the most violent forms of expressing the white supremacy doctrine. It endangers the civil rights of all Americans and strikes at the foundations of democracy. Its employment against one oppressed section of the people leads to the extension of its use against other groups and minorities. Deepening hates and prejudices, lynching also fosters and instigates the spread of anti-Semitism, discrimination against Italians, Poles, Catholics, and other minorities. Ultimately, it gives rein to the forces of fascism in America.

We prefer the Case bill, H. R. 3488, because, in addition to outlawing lynching by making it a Federal crime, it provides the necessary severe penalties covering not only individual members of lynch mobs but also State and local officers who by connivance, collusion, and negligence, assist lynch mobs. In many cases the lynchers could not succeed without this police collusion which is excused as "negligence."

Our support of the Case bill is but part of the demand by the overwhelming majority of the American people for a Federal antilynching law. We emphasize this fact in view of the attempts of political partisans of both the Democratic . and Republican Parties to make political capital out of this issue, to kick it back and forth like a football for votes. The antilynching bill must be passed because the people want it, because America needs it to secure the lives of those threatened; to eliminate prejudice, discrimination, and inequality; to preserve and strengthen our civil right and democracy.

The International Workers Order, as an interracial fraternal benefit organization, with 185,000 members, over 6,000 of whom are Negroes, is deeply concerned that this legislation be passed by Congress without delay. The American traditions of freedom, equality, and democracy require it; justice and the people demand it.

Yours truly,

INTERNATIONAL WORKERS ORDER,
ROCKWELL KENT, General President.

STATEMENT of George MaARSHALL, CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS CONGRESS, IN SUPPORT OF THE WAGNER-CASE FEDERAL ANTILYNCHING BILL

In behalf of the Civil Rights Congress, a Nation-wide organization dedicated to the protection and extension of the civil rights of the American people, I wish to urge passage in this session of the Wagner (S. 1352), Case (H. R. 3488) antilynch bill.

This bill is one of the most important measures to come before Congress since the adoption of the fourteenth amendment. The Negro people have waited more than 80 years for the passage of this bill, together with other related measures which are required to give them the full equality to which they are entitled. The great majority of the American people are increasingly incensed at the failure to pass this legislation in the face of the 4,719 lynchings since 1882 and in the face of the continued practice of this most horrible of crimes. Legislation of this general type has been passed by the House four times since 1908. Presidential candidates and the major political parties have made repeated campaign statements in support of such legislation and continue to do so to day. The American people have become impatient and insistent that strong antilynch legislation as embodied in the Case-Wagner bill be passed overwhelmingly and without further delay in both the House and in the Senate. The crime of lynching can no longer be tolerated in America. No year has been free from lynchings. The actual number of lynchings per year have been far greater than the official figures indicate. Thus in 1946 the official total of 6 lynchings fails to include 13 other recorded murders of Negroes which are lynchings under any reasonable interpretations of the term.