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In
Texas,
the publicity of the
lynching
provoked even more attacks on Mexicans. Because Mexicans "displayed an
impudent attitude" they were attacked in Galveston. In construction camps
and ranches in Webb, Duval, LaSalle, Dimmit and Starr Counties, Anglos
attacked Mexicans who were reportedly "sullen and threatening since the
burning of Rodriquez at Rock Springs."
In the American Southwest,
people of Mexican descent were also prey to mob violence, as evidenced by
the
lynching
of Antonio Rodriquez on November 3, 1910, in Rock Springs,
Texas. Allegedly, Rodriquez had killed a white woman by the name of Mrs. Clem Hernderson after the two had had an argument. Rumors circulated that
he had committed the murder in front of Mrs. Henderson's five year old
daughter.
His guilt was based solely upon her husband's third-hand
description of the suspect delivered over the telephone and most likely
Rodriquez was the victim of a tragic case of mistaken identity. In
any event, the young cowboy was captured, taken a mile outside of town,
tied to a mesquite cactus, doused in kerosene, and burned alive.
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Man hanged, C.H. Graves, 1901.
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Widely publicized in the
Mexican press, the
lynching
in
Texas
led to large anti-American demonstrations in both Mexico City and
Guadalajara. Coverage of the
lynching
and the reaction to it was wildly sensationalized. The newspapers at
the capitol of Mexico demanded 'Where is the boasted Yankee
civilization?'"
In late April, 1911 a posse visited the
Nelson cabin in
Oklahoma,
suspecting Mr. Nelson of stealing cattle. While they were
looking for meat, the Nelson's fourteen year old son, L.W., shot and
killed Deputy George Loney, who was in charge of the posse. Laura Nelson, the boy's mother, claimed to have shot the Deputy, in an
attempt to protect her son. Both mother and son were taken to
the Okemah County jail. Days later Mr. Nelson pled guilty to
stealing cattle and was sent to prison.
While Laura and her son awaited their
trials, Laura was determined to be innocent of the crime. However on May 25th forty men stormed the sheriff's office. The
jailer, named Payne, lied that the two prisoners had been moved
elsewhere, but when a revolver was "pressed into his temple," he led
them to the prisoners. Mother
and son were then hauled by wagon six miles west of town to a steel
bridge crossing the Canadian River and hanged.
The next morning a black boy taking his
cow to water, discovered the two bodies swaying under the bridge. Before long the scene had attracted hundreds of viewers before the
bodies were cut down. No one was ever arrested for the crime.
One local newspaper had this to say of the
lynching:
"While the general sentiment is adverse to the method,
it is generally thought that the Negroes got what would have been due
them under process of law."
Amazingly, even the black folks got wrapped up in the
lynching craze when
they lynched three of their own people on September 12, 1911 in
Wickliffe, Kentucky. Three black men, by the names of Ernest Harrison, Sam Reed and Frank Howard, confessed to the murder of
Washington Thomas, an older and much respected black man. When
Thomas, who was employed in a tobacco factory, was walking home from
work, the three men waylaid him along the railroad tracks, robbing him
of his salary and killing him. The offenders were quickly
apprehended and placed in jail. However, during the night a mob
of blacks invaded the jail, took the prisoners and
hanged
them to a cross beam in a mill near the river.
Bennie Simmons, or Dennis Simmons, accused of the
murder of sixteen-year-old Susie Church, was taken from prison guards
in Anadarko,
Oklahoma
on June 13, 1913. His killers led him to a nearby bridge and
hanged
him from the limb of a cottonwood tree flourishing by a stream.
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Laura Nelson is hanged near Okemah,
Oklahoma
on May 25, 1911. Photograph by G.J. Farnum, 1911, copyright
expired,
courtesy
Georgetown
University.
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The Enfaula Democrat would report
the following on the
lynching:
"The Negro prayed and shrieked in agony as
the flames reached his flesh," reported a local newspaper, "but his
cries were drowned out by yells and jeers of the mob." As Simmons
began to lose consciousness the mob fired at the body, cutting it to
pieces. "The mobsters made no attempt to conceal their identity but
there were no prosecutions."
August 17, 1915, Leo Frank, a
Jewish-American factory manager, was hanged from a tree in Marietta,
Georgia by a mob of 25 men. Frank had been convicted of
murdering Mary Phagan, a 13-year-old employee of the Atlanta pencil
factory that Frank managed, two years earlier. His trial had
attracted international attention, turning the spotlight on
anti-Semitism in the United States and led to the founding of the
Anti-Defamation League. Though he was sentenced to death, his
sentence was later commuted by Georgia's governor. |
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Soon after the commutation, on August 16,
1915, a group of 25 men stormed the Milledgeville Prison hospital
where Leo Frank was recovering from having his throat slashed by a
fellow inmate. They kidnapped Frank, drove him more than 100
miles to Mary Phagan’s hometown of Marietta, Georgia, and
hanged
him from a tree. Frank conducted himself with dignity, calmly
proclaiming his innocence.
Continued
Next Page
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An unknown white man is
lynched in
Texas in
1910. Photo courtesy
Denver Public Library.
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Yaqui Indians lynched by Mexicans, Bain News Service
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