Black Farmers Talking Self Determination Leads To Riot

 

July 10, 1919, Longview Texas was a mid-size city in the early 20^th Century and had a agricultural economy based on lumber and cotton production. Like many Southern cities it had racial tension and at this time that tension was stronger than usual after a lynching of a young black man in the previous month and Black leaders suggesting that Black farmers take their business into their own hands and sell their cotton directly to markets in Galveston.

These two events had thrown the balance off in the town and long simmering resentments began to boil. The lynching had been of a young Black man named Lemuel Walters. He had been murdered reportedly for harassing and attacking a white woman. The standard reason in so many mob murders during the Jim Crow era. Walters had been arrested for his supposed crime and then surrendered to the mob by the sheriff. This is what was reported in the local and regional papers. This case wasn’t so simple and as reported in the national Black paper “The Defender” Walters had actually been in a consensual relationship with the woman, who reportedly said if they lived in the north she would have married Walters.

Regardless of who wrote this story, it would have been a spark in most Southern towns. Still, in Longview, it just so happened that the author of the story was a prominent local teacher and social leader Samuel L. Jones. Jones was one of the men advocating that local farmers sell directly in Galveston and cut out the local brokers.

Jones was a marked man and on this day two men claiming to be the woman’s brothers and a small group of men found Jones at the courthouse and proceeded to beat him. Somehow Jones got away and found his friend and fellow activist Dr. Calvin Davis to aid him. Davis took Jones to his house then sounded the alarm and organized a group of Black men to help defend Jones.

After losing Jones the White group gathered more men and they went out to Jones house to get him, finding his home empty they set it on fire and burned it down. The mob then converged on Davis’s house but were surprised by men firing guns from hidden positions.

Surprisingly no one was killed but three White men were wounded by buckshot. One man who had tried to hide under Davis’s porch was caught and badly beaten by the Black defenders. The mob retreated to the Longview firehouse and rang the alarm and soon had an angry mob of 500 or more who were angry about the idea of Blacks defending themselves.

The mob returned to the Black section of Longview and Davis’s house. However, Jones and Davis had left by then as had many other Black residents. The mob was now close to 1,000. They set fire to Davis’s home and others owned by Blacks. They also began attacking and beating other Blacks. In the riot that developed Dr. Davis’s father-in-law was killed. It happened early on the morning of the 11^th during an interaction with the sheriff.

Hoping to avoid further violence County Judge E. M. Bramlette and Sheriff D. S. Meredith telephoned Governor William P. Hobby and requested aid. Hobby ordered eight Texas Rangers to Longview. Hobby also placed three units of the Texas National Guard on standby. As reports of random acts of violence came to his office Judge Bramlette called back the governor and requested the aid by sundown.

Brig. Gen. R. H. McDill was in command of the guard units and up on arrival in town he placed it under martial law. This included a curfew and an order to break up any group of three or more men. This covered both the Black and White sections of town. McDill also ordered all guns surrendered to the sheriff’s office at the courthouse. The Rangers arrived the next morning and started making arrests to restore order.

White rage had won again as the only death was Dr. Davis’s father-in-law and the property damage was all to Black homes. Unlike so many other riots in the Red Summer of 1919 17 White men were arrested for attempted murder. The Rangers also arrested 21 Black men, but it was recorded as for their own safety and they were taken to Rangers barracks in Austin. None of these arrests were ever brought to trial though and by July 18 martial law was ended and weapons were being returned to citizens, both Black and White.

Sources:

https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/longview-race-riot-of-1919

https://www.newspapers.com/image/432923064/?match=1&terms=Riot

https://www.news-journal.com/news/local/longviews-deadly-1919-race-riot-passed-down-memories-no-markers/article_d218a530-9dcf-11e9-851a-cf9c637f3994.html

Two Black Men Shot To Death For Walking Home

Orange, TX Jun 5, 1910, it appears that two Black men were shot to death overnight while they were walking home from a festival in the Negro Section last night. Douglas Lemon and Rankin Moore were reported have had a confrontation with three white men after midnight.

Tensions have been high in Orange County since the killing of Deputy Constable Sam Combs by a Black man named Jack White on April 18. Law officers promised the community that if they remained calm there would be swift justice for White, but that had not happened as there were multiple delays in White’s trial.

It seems the resentments of White residents of Orange overflowed last night as shots rang out into the Negro district apparently killing Rankin and then Lemon. Rankin took the bulk of the anger as his body was riddled with bullets. A few hours later Lemon’s body was found.

The investigation has not turned up any clues about who might have shot and killed the two men and fired other warning shots into the Negro section. Although they are continuing to interview people, the sheriff’s office feels there isn’t much hope they will find the shooters.

As always during the Jim Crow era the county coroner listed the deaths as killing by the hands of persons unknown.

 

Officials Allow Lynching And Blacks Questioning The Action Are Run Out Of Town

In the Jim Crow period of the South Lynching was so common and so condoned by authorities and others in the dominant white society that often reports were bareboned and lacking in details as to when, why or how an African American was murdered by the mob.

Such was the case on August 5, 1907, when a Black man named Thomas Hall was killed by a mob. News reports appeared all over the country and were all identical from Houston to Honolulu to New York City.

The story was that Hall was in jail after being arrested for attempted assault on two young White girls. The story didn’t say when, who, or even where. What they did report was that Hall attempted to assault the two girls and said lewd things to them. Then the story reported he had been arrested at 9:00 p.m. then was found dead hanging from a tree near the jail two hours later.

The story made no mention of how he was taken from the jail, or if there were attempts to settle the mob. All that is reported is that Hall’s body was found and the order was returned to the town of Runge in Texas. 

What was unexplained is how Hall was taken from jail or if law enforcement was a causal supporter of the mob. No details about Hall’s life are given or if there had been a court date or if there was going to be an inquest into the young man’s death.

What is stated is that any black person questioning the lynching, the failure of law enforcement to protect Hall was asked to leave town and not return. So both the hanging of a man and the creation of a “Sundown Town” in Runge went unquestioned by anyone working for a newspaper and was just another fact of life in the segregated South.