The Daily Worker

Texas Communists Fined for Distributing Anti-Lynching Leaflets Among Workers

RED SPEAKERS IN HOUSTON BARRED FOR ACTIVITIES

Capitalist Justice Is Shown in Acts

Lynch a Negro in Texas and you'll be acquitted; distribute leaflets against lynching or carry a placard advertising a Communist meeting to protest against lynching and oppression of Negroes, and you will be fined. This was the experience of workers in Houston, Texas, recently. A report has just been sent to the Daily Worker by L. J. Kelly and Harry Lawrence from Houston, where they were each fined $100 for "disturbing the peace" and "violating the sign-posting ordinance."

The Texas workers enclose in their report a bundle of clippings from the local newspapers, which show that they took full advantage of the opportunity to get publicity for the Workers Party. The account of the arrest of six Communists at the meeting addressed by Benjamin Gitlow in Houston and their trial occupied the front pages of the capitalist papers for several days.

Fake Vagrancy Charges.

Four of them were charged with vagrancy, but as they had jobs the charge was dropped. One of them, a sympathizer, who was a reporter on a Houston paper, lost his position, and another reports that he is in danger of being fired.

During the trial the prosecuting attorney made a speech to the jury, in which he appealed to them as patriotic Americans to protect the government from the Reds. He read to the jury from the anti-lynching leaflet, and said that in the part of the country he came from the Communists would hang from the nearest tree for advocacy of equality for Negroes, and, worse than that in the eyes of the 100 per center, the advocacy of self-determination, which he characterized as treason and sedition. The judge expressed a regret that the maximum fine under the charge for which the workers were tried was $100. He said they should be in jail.

Police Brutality.

In the trial Lawrence and Kelly both testified that the police, when arresting them, cursed and struck them in the face. The defendants gave notice of appeal and were released under $200 bond.

The recent lynching of Robert Powell, Negro worker, came to the fore during the trial. Several of the fascists arrested and charged with the lynching had just been acquitted. The anti-lynching leaflet distributed by the Houston workers referred to this case, and it was mentioned in the course of their trial several times.