The Mcdowell Times

FOLLOWS HITLER PLAN
Brownsville Lynching -

'NASHVILLE,TENN.--'The white people of Brownsville, Tennessee, who last June lynched Elbert Williams and drove seven other Negroes from their homes because the Negroes of Brownsville wanted to exercise their constitutional right to vote in the coming presidential election, thereby helped Hitler and deserve a letter of thanks from the Nazi leader."

This was the statement made here by Walter White, secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, at an NAACP sponsored mass meeting held here at St. John's AME church August 29th for the purpose of raising funds to continue the fight to bring the lynchers to justice and to broaden the right-to-vote campaign in this state.

The lynching of Williams was the first death resulting from a campaign of terror launched by whites in Brownsville against members of the NAACP -in an attempt to head off the register and vote drive. The Rev. Buster Walker. president of the NAACP. branch. and Elisha Davis, a member of the Executive Committee. both of who worked with Williams in leading the vote drive. were run out of Brownsville and have not been allowed to return.

Deriding the whitewash investigation of the Williams lynching by the Haywood county Grand Jury, in a no- indictment verdict it handed down August 13. the NAACP secretary said:

"The Grand Jury report that no evidence could be found as to the perpetrators of that outrage is ridiculous. I am no expert investigator 'but in a very few days I'was able to gather concrete evidence establishing the participation of thirteen persons in the kidnapping and murder of Williams and the driving out of 7 other Negroes from Brownsville. All of this evidence and the names of witnesses willing and eager to testify have been placed in the hands of the U.S. Attorney General at Memphis and have been placed in the hands of the Department of Justice at Washington. Section 18. Title 51 of the United States Criminal Code, the conspiracy statute, clearly covers the Brownsville case. : It provides for and requires federal action when two or more persons conspire together to deprive another person of the rights due him under the Federal Constitution.The only reason for the Brownsville affair was the asking by these Negro citizens of what they should do to qualify" and'register so that they might vote in next November's election of "a president and vice-president of the United States. We maintain that the conspiracy to prevent their doing so is a clear and unmistakable violation of this Federal statute and we insist that the law be enforced to the fullest extent.

The Brownsville lynching, White declared, gives the lie to the oft-repeated assertions of Southern Senators that n o Federal anti-lynching bill is needed because the Southern states can act "vigorously and promptly" to prevent this (Continued on page four)
BROWNSVILLE LYNCHING FOLLOWS HITLER PLAN

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crime. Pointing to the obvious guilt of the law enforcement agencies of Tennessee, he said:

"In 1938, your Senator Kenneth McKellar was one of the most active opponents of the Wagner - Van Nuys-Gavagan Anti Lynching Bill during the seven weeks filibuster which cost the American taxpayer near a half million dollars.

During the course of that long and bitter fight, Senator McKellar put into the Congressional Record of January 17, 1938, telegrams from the Governors of fifteen Southern states, one of them being the then Governor of Tennessee, which stated that no Federal legislation against lynching was needed as the states could and would act vigorously, and promptly and honestly to prevent lynchings and punish lynchers.

The Brownsville lynching clearly shows how much faith can be placed in those pledges. As far as the public record shows, the State of Tennessee has done absolutely nothing to punish William's lynchers whose identities are known, and obviously does not propose to do anything. It is therefore imperative that the fight for Federal legislation be renewed and doubled in intensity, since once more the impotence of the states has been demonstrated.

"Dark and perilous days lie ahead of America. The tides of totalitarianism sweep ominously down upon the shores of what some orators call 'the last remaining democracy.' We ask America if she wants the 12 million Negroes of this country to believe in their country's honesty when it says it opposes race hatred and bigotry and dictatorship. If so, then America must wipe out the kind of Hitlerite bigotry for which Brownsville tragedy stands."