Rank Prejudice
August 15, 1896
Summary
The Planet responds to an article in the contemporary paper, the Lynchburg Virginia News, which attempts to slander the Lunenburg prisoners as their legal counsel was running for Congress on a platform opposite theirs.
Transcription
The Lynchburg, Va., News in its issue of August 5th indulges in a tirade of misrepresentation which is a disgrace to modern journalism and not at all in keeping with the conservative course adopted by that journal. It attempts to combine professional duty with political activity and violates a inherent principle in its insane effort to profit thereby.
It denominates the innocent Lunenburg women as murderers. And this too in the face of the fact that it is well-known that none of them has anything to do with that horrible butchery of Mrs. Lucy Jane Pollard.
Nearly fourteen months have passed and nothing has been adduced to connect them with the crime or even excite a reasonable suspicion.
Pokey Barnes proved a complete alibi, that is that she was elsewhere when the murder was committed. This was true also of her mother, Mary Barnes, now confined in the Virginia penitentiary while Mary Abernathy is known to have left the Pollard house before the murder was committed.
Solomon Marable, standing upon the trap-door of a gallows declared that they had no part in the crime and yet this journal with a recklessness that is as brutal as it is uncalled for would manufacture public resentment against these helpless, innocent creatures, simply because one of the counsel is spoken of as a possible candidate for Congress on a sound money platform as in opposition to the populistic one adopted at Chicago.
Is this right? Is it just? Is it keeping with that chivalry, that spit of fair play for which Virginians are noted? But the News is warring upon a helpless woman, a Virginia black-mammy. Could it sink lower in the pond of journalistic degradation?
Let its editor go within the gloomy confines of that prison, and call for the woman he charges with murder. Let him listen to her statement, question her as he will and draw his own conclusions.
But, thank God, all of the white people are not of this ilk. There are thousands who love justice and eschew injustice in all of its forms. Poor Aunt Mary!
Friends have ministered to her wants and stood by her. It will be so to the end.
Write your articles, Mr. Editor. Multiply this woman's sorrows, and increase her tears. In the solitude of her prison home, she will pray for you and our Lord will hear her cries in his own time.
It is not a question as to whether Mr. Wise shall run for Congress or not, it is whether this innocent old creature shall live. Shrewd detectives have traversed every foot of the country in the neighborhood where the murder was committed. Come to Richmond and we will show you the reports. You will then realize the blunder you have made and the injury you have caused. Human life is not to be trifled with. It is too precious. Poor Aunt Mary!
It denominates the innocent Lunenburg women as murderers. And this too in the face of the fact that it is well-known that none of them has anything to do with that horrible butchery of Mrs. Lucy Jane Pollard.
Nearly fourteen months have passed and nothing has been adduced to connect them with the crime or even excite a reasonable suspicion.
Pokey Barnes proved a complete alibi, that is that she was elsewhere when the murder was committed. This was true also of her mother, Mary Barnes, now confined in the Virginia penitentiary while Mary Abernathy is known to have left the Pollard house before the murder was committed.
Solomon Marable, standing upon the trap-door of a gallows declared that they had no part in the crime and yet this journal with a recklessness that is as brutal as it is uncalled for would manufacture public resentment against these helpless, innocent creatures, simply because one of the counsel is spoken of as a possible candidate for Congress on a sound money platform as in opposition to the populistic one adopted at Chicago.
Is this right? Is it just? Is it keeping with that chivalry, that spit of fair play for which Virginians are noted? But the News is warring upon a helpless woman, a Virginia black-mammy. Could it sink lower in the pond of journalistic degradation?
Let its editor go within the gloomy confines of that prison, and call for the woman he charges with murder. Let him listen to her statement, question her as he will and draw his own conclusions.
But, thank God, all of the white people are not of this ilk. There are thousands who love justice and eschew injustice in all of its forms. Poor Aunt Mary!
Friends have ministered to her wants and stood by her. It will be so to the end.
Write your articles, Mr. Editor. Multiply this woman's sorrows, and increase her tears. In the solitude of her prison home, she will pray for you and our Lord will hear her cries in his own time.
It is not a question as to whether Mr. Wise shall run for Congress or not, it is whether this innocent old creature shall live. Shrewd detectives have traversed every foot of the country in the neighborhood where the murder was committed. Come to Richmond and we will show you the reports. You will then realize the blunder you have made and the injury you have caused. Human life is not to be trifled with. It is too precious. Poor Aunt Mary!
About this article
Source
Location on Page
Upper Left Quadrant
Topic
Contributed By
Liam Eynan
Citation
“Rank Prejudice,” Black Virginia: The Richmond Planet, 1894-1909, accessed September 14, 2026, https://blackvirginia.richmond.edu/items/show/1648.