The Duluth Lynching.
Type of event: Lynchings
Location: Duluth; St. Louis County; Minnesota; United States
Citation:
Chicago Daily Tribune, June 17, 1920, page 8.
“The Duluth Lynching”
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The Duluth Lynching.
Duluth has now joined the American cities which have discovered how easily
the safeguards of civilized justice can be leaped. Suddenness is a common
factor of all such outbreaks and law finally reasserts itself, but after lives
are sacrificed and the community’s good name is besmirched.
In Omaha,
it was said, delays and failure of justice in cases of offenses against women
had inflamed public feeling. Pictures of the mob showed callousness and
irresponsibility rather than uncontrollable passion. The delay of justice
theory did not bear examination very well. In the Duluth lynching it seems to
have less validity if it has any.
The problem is deeper. At its base, of
course, is a very strong trait in American character which creates, in spite of
inconsistencies and exceptions, a special attitude toward women. In the Duluth
case the men charged with the offense were Negroes, and undoubtedly this was an
important factor in the psychology of the outbreak. But white men are sometimes
lynched for this offense when circumstances are aggravated. In the Duluth
lynching motives of sex protection and of race instinct were combined.
We
can eradicate neither and we would eradicate neither. Both are useful, perhaps
necessary if properly controlled and directed. But they were not controlled in
Duluth, as they were not controlled in Chicago, in Omaha, in Springfield. The
authorities of Duluth permitted the leaders of the mob to go about in
automobiles gathering recruits for the lynching. This was a sign of
inefficiency, of lax police discipline, if not of connivance, which challenges
the self-respect of Duluth and warns the responsible elements of its population
that the morale of its police protection is low. Prompt arrest of the mob
leaders would have saved a blot on the city’s scutcheon and perhaps the
lives of innocent men.
That is for Duluth to think about; but all America
has in this new lynching a cause for the gravest reflection. The Duluth mob
heard appeals to let the law take its course. It’s members did not heed
these appeals because they themselves wanted to kill. We doubt if they were
certain as to the guilt of the men who died asserting their innocence; but they
wanted victims to assuage their lust for vengeance, and victims they would have,
whether innocent or guilty. We doubt if the uncertainty and tardiness of legal
processes of justice have much to do with lynch psychology, but we think it
might be tempered by a keener sense of responsibility to the law. Mobs, and
even mob leaders, are seldom punished. Until they are there is little to check
the lynching evil.
We hope Duluth will do better than other cities in
dealing with the men who have brought stain to her good name. Duluth is a very
proud city and may set us all an example. We certainly need one. Mob violence
is inexcusable in civilized communities. The American lynching is a disgrace to
us the world over.