South Carolina and Lynching
November 16, 1895
Summary
South Carolina, which has turned a blind eye lynchings, has stated that any officer who does not attempt to stop a mob from taking a prisoner will be “deemed guilty of a misdemeanor.”
Transcription
South Carolina’s Unconstitutional “Constitutional” Convention has covered itself with ignominy on the suffrage question but is all right on lynching.
The following section which was adopted on the 9th inst. at Columbia will result in much good and tend to eliminate the evil at which it is aimed:
“In the case of any prisoner lawfully in the charge, custody, or control of any officers; State, county or municipal being seized and taken from said officer through his negligence, permission, or connivance, by a mob or other unlawful assemblage of persons and at their hands suffering bodily violence or death, the said officer shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon a true bill finding, shall be deposed from his office, and shall unless pardoned by the Governor, henceforth be ineligible to hold any office of trust or profit within this State.
“It shall be the duty of the prosecuting attorney within whose circuit or county the offense may be committed to forth with institute a prosecution against said officer, who shall be indicted and tried in such county other than the one in which the offense was committed, as the Attorney General may elect, in the same circuit. The fees and mileage of all material witnesses both for the State and for the defense shall be paid by the State Treasurer in such manner as may be provided by law.”
A few more measures of this sort and the crowning infamy of the Nineteenth Century will have gone never to return. We might add that we presume that this action too was taken to ease conscience and to throw a sop to the colored members who fought so valiantly against the suffrage amendments which eliminated their race and the poor white man as a political factor in the affairs of state.
Lynch-law must go!
The following section which was adopted on the 9th inst. at Columbia will result in much good and tend to eliminate the evil at which it is aimed:
“In the case of any prisoner lawfully in the charge, custody, or control of any officers; State, county or municipal being seized and taken from said officer through his negligence, permission, or connivance, by a mob or other unlawful assemblage of persons and at their hands suffering bodily violence or death, the said officer shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon a true bill finding, shall be deposed from his office, and shall unless pardoned by the Governor, henceforth be ineligible to hold any office of trust or profit within this State.
“It shall be the duty of the prosecuting attorney within whose circuit or county the offense may be committed to forth with institute a prosecution against said officer, who shall be indicted and tried in such county other than the one in which the offense was committed, as the Attorney General may elect, in the same circuit. The fees and mileage of all material witnesses both for the State and for the defense shall be paid by the State Treasurer in such manner as may be provided by law.”
A few more measures of this sort and the crowning infamy of the Nineteenth Century will have gone never to return. We might add that we presume that this action too was taken to ease conscience and to throw a sop to the colored members who fought so valiantly against the suffrage amendments which eliminated their race and the poor white man as a political factor in the affairs of state.
Lynch-law must go!
About this article
Source
Location on Page
Upper Left Quadrant
Topic
Contributed By
Cord Fox
Citation
“South Carolina and Lynching,” Black Virginia: The Richmond Planet, 1894-1909, accessed January 20, 2026, https://blackvirginia.richmond.edu/items/show/1478.