Atlanta Daily World

PRANKSTERS WHIPPED IN PUBLIC BY PARENTS
Punishment Attacked By White Minister

PICAYUNE, Miss.--(ANP)--Last Thursday's edition of the Picayune Item, white daily, carried an editorial condemning the flagrant punishment meted out to 5 Negro boys for a practical joke which they played on the defense project here Sunday. The prank, perpetuated by the boys who ranged from 10 to 17 years of age, upset the 6,000 populace of the town, but controversial opinions are going the rounds as to whether the punishment meted out to the youngsters was just.

The story surrounding the incident began Sunday evening when the boys, Eddie M. McGrew, 15; Johnnie Gaines, 17; Dan Strickland, 12; Willie Lourant, 13, and Percy Gordon 16, were playing near their homes here. A homing pigeon came down near them and they caught it. One of the boys suggested they write a note saying "Hello," attach it to the pigeon and release it. Johnnie, however, suggested they write "We shell bomb the Crosby Retort Plant to-night at 12:43 o'clock," signed "Hanz." That idea was unanimously agreed upon by the boys.

PIGEON GOT AWAY

The note was printed in large letters and fastened to the bird's leg. The boys claimed the pigeon got away from them and they could not catch it Tuesday the pigeon was found by John Patch Jr., and Henry Gipson, who read the note and turned it over to Deputy Sheriff W. A. Alexander, who got in touch with the owners of the plant.

Near panic engulfed the workers of the naval stores plant, some refusing to go to their work at all. Special guards and highway patrolmen guarded the plant until Thursday when George and Fred McGrew, brothers of Eddie McGrew, one of the boys involved in the prank, told Supt. H. A. Brondon, of the plant, that their brother with four others were responsible for the note.

Rounding up the boys, police officers placed them in the city jail. No charge could be placed against the boys, however, as there was no criminal intent in what they had done, and the boys were under the age of criminal responsibility. Therefore, the parents of the boys were called in and made to agree that the boys would be publicly whipped as punishment for their prank. Late Thursday evening the boys were taken to a public place and one by one turned over to the parents who administered the punishment.

Sundry reports have it that the boys were beaten until they could

(Continued on page 5, col. 4)
Pranksters Whipped

(Continued from page 1)

not stand; that their eyes were closed and great whelps about the heads were in evidence. Marshal P. I. Graves stated that the boys were soundly thrashed but that they were not beaten until they could not stand. Another person stated that most of the boys fell to the ground at the first lick, but were in no way knocked down or bruised.

However, the populace of Picayune is divided in opinion as to whether this public punishment was just and correct. On one hand, it is held that the boys were publicly whipped for a boyish prank that is likely to happen to any boy or boys of any race. Although the opinion is that the lads were not brutally beaten, the ordeal was embarrassing and painful while the lash was being applied. Despite the fact that the prank was fraught with grave possibilities because of strained relations with Germany and the German name "Hanz" signed to the note, it is nevertheless wondered if the lashings would restrain youths from committing such acts. It is believed that a repetition of this incident would not occur, but the question arises, "Will it keep them from doing some other prank just as dangerous?"

On the other hand, looking at the chaos, strain, expense and fear created by the note, in that employees of the plant worked all night Tuesday and Wednesday with special guards, opinions have it that the potential harm of whipping the boys was in no degree commensurate to the potential harm that could have come from the writing of the note. However, the question still arises, "was the whipping a just and effective antidote for such pranks?"

A letter from Rev Clyde Gordon, white here, also publicly denounced this act as "unChristian and unAmerican." He declared that instead of a crime, it would have been held a splendid joke if this act had been committed by children of some of the leading citizens of the city. But since the pranksters' faces were black, they had to be beaten with a lash at the public whipping post.

Continuing, Rev. Gordon said, We need to sit in the place of these socially underprivileged. I believe we sorely need at times to put ourselves in the place of the black man that is among us. He has not had our opportunities.

The school situation was also attacked with reference to Negroes. With 400 students enrolled in the local school, there are only six teachers provided and there is no type of vocational education for boys or girls. Yet, as Rev. Gordon said, "we require more of the underprivileged man than we do the privileged. We punish his crimes with a severity with which we do not punish the crimes of him who has had a far better opportunity."