HEARINGS BEFORE A BILLS TO ASSURE TO PERSONS WITHIN THE JURISDICTION OF EVERY STATE DUE PROC- JANUARY 19, 20, 21, FEBRUARY 2, 18, AND 20, 1948 Printed for the use of the Committee on the Judiciary HOMER FERGUSON, Michigan, Chairman CHAPMAN REVERCOMB, West Virginia JAMES O. EASTLAND, Mississippi II Hon. Albert W. Hawkes, a United States Senator from the State of William F. Barry, Solicitor General of Tennessee, Nashville, Tenn... Hon. Wayne Morse, a United States Senator from the State of Oregon_ Hon. Kenneth B. Keating, a Representative in Congress from the Mike Masaoka, national legislative director, Japanese American Citizens League Anti-Discrimination Committee, Washington, Charles H. Houston, chairman, national legal_committee, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Washington 4, Albert Arent, chairman, executive committee, Washington, D. C., Chapter, American Jewish Congress, Washington, D. C.; accom- panied by Joseph B. Robison, attorney, staff of commission on law and social action, American Jewish Congress, New York, N. Y., and Sanford H. Bolz, Washington representative, American Jewish Hon. John C. Stennis, a United States Senator from the State of Walter White, executive secretary, National Association for the Ad- James A. Cobb, former municipal court judge, Washington, D. C......... Hon. John C. Stennis, a United States Senator from the State of Memorandum from the Federal Law Section, the Library of Congress on the constitutionality of the holding of State governmental subdivisions CRIME OF LYNCHING MONDAY, JANUARY 19, 1948 UNITED STATES SENATE, SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY, Washington, D. C. The subcommittee met at 10 a. m., pursuant to call, in room 424, Senate Office Building, Senator Homer Ferguson, chairman of the subcommittee, presiding. Present: Senators Ferguson (chairman of the subcommittee), Revercomb, and Eastland. Present also: Senators Hawkes and Morse; Robert Barnes Young, committee staff. Senator FERGUSON. The committee will come to order. This morning the subcommittee has met to consider three bills, S. 42, S. 1352, and S. 1465. I shall ask that the bills be inserted in the record at this point. (S. 42, S. 1352, and S. 1465 are as follows:) [S. 42, 80th Cong., 1st sess.] A BILL To assure to persons within the jurisdiction of every State due process of law and equal protection of the laws, and to prevent the crime of lynching Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the provisions of this Act are enacted in exercise of the power of Congress to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of the fourteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States and for the purpose of better assuring by the several States under said amendment equal protection and due process of law to all persons charged with or suspected or convicted of any offense within their jurisdiction. SEC. 2. Any assemblage of three or more persons which exercises or attempts to exercise by physical violence and without authority of law any power of correction or punishment over any citizen or citizens or other person or persons in the custody of any peace officer or suspected of, charged with, or convicted of the commission of any offense, with the purpose or consequence of preventing the apprehension or trial or punishment by law of such citizen or citizens, person or persons, shall constitute a "mob" within the meaning of this Act. Any such violence by a mob which results in the death or maiming of the victim or victims thereof shall constitute "lynching" within the meaning of this Act. SEC. 3. Whenever a lynching occurs, any officer or employee of a State or any governmental subdivision thereof who is charged with the duty or possesses the authority to protect such person or persons from lynching, and neglects or refuses to make all diligent efforts to protect such person or persons from lynching, or who has custody of the person or persons lynched and neglects or refuses to make all diligent efforts to protect such person or persons from lynching, or who is charged with the duty or possesses the authority to apprehend, keep in custody, or prosecute the members or any member of the lynching mob and neglects or refuses to make diligent efforts so to do, shall be guilty of a felony and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine not exceeding $5,000 or by imprisonment not exceed five years, or by both such fine and imprisonment. |