THE
"Negro in Georgia"
Another "Pamphlet" Called Forth by Governor Hugh
M. Dorsey's Slanderous Document, Scattered
Broadcast Over the Country, and in WHch He
Purported to Set Forth the Brutal Treatment Ac¬
corded the Negro by White Citizens of Georgia—
The "American Belgian Congo."
1SS JED BY
Dixie Defense Committee
(Georgia Division)
EMORY UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY
GIFT OF
"Jit. ^ . V\- ^ oV>a%or>
FOREWORD
This pamphlet was prepared by Dr. Caleb A. Ridley, pastor of
the Central Baptist Church in Atlanta, Ga,, who was born and
reared in the South, who has lived in Atlanta for the past eight
years and whose sentiments herein expressed are endorsed by 95
per cent of all the white citizens of the state.
The statement herein contained is designed to correct, in so
far as that may be humanly possible, the impression of the citi¬
zens of Georgia as a whole which has been conveyed to the outside
world by the frightfully overdrawn picture of the abuse of the
negro population of this state by the white citizens. It is not in¬
tended as an apology for any evil condition that may exist in this
state, but it is intended to refute and condemn the slanderous and
wholly untrue charges (as testified by grand jury after grand
jury, judges, solicitors, sheriffs, mayors, patriotic organizations
and others throughout the entire state) that peonage exists in
Georgia on an extensive scale and that it is known and condoned
by the people of this state, and that negroes are lynched frequently
practically without cause, that they are abused, beaten, robbed
and otherwise mistreated and denied the ordinary rights of a hu¬
man being; that this condition is general throughout the state
and that it is known and condoned by the people of this state.
Proof that the governor's pamphlet has given the rest of the
country a distorted idea of the actual condtions in Georgia is am¬
ple. We need only to look at the newspapers to find this is true.
Here, for example, are a few headlines appearing in the papers:
"Georgia Reeks With Negro Atrocities, Asserts Governor."
"Blacks Enslaved, Slain, Driven Out, Dorsey Writes."
"American Congo of 1921, Georgia! Governor's Fear."
"Executive of State Declares in Some Sections Negroes are
Treated As Wild Beasts."
These are just a few of the slanderous headlines the governor's
pamphlet has inspired in northern newspapers, too many of them
always ready to propagate any insult upon the south or its people.
Then we have the slurring, insulting editorial comment which
this pamphlet has inspired among white newspaper editors, to say
nothing of that appearing in negro publications which take their cue
frcm the National Association for the Advancement of Colored Peo-
1
pie, an officer of which had the effrontery to say that "it (the N. A.
A. d P.) would now wait to see what Georgia was going to do about
it (alleged peonage and brutality to the negro) before the N. A.
A. C. P. took any action toward stepping in."
DIXIE DEFENSE COMMITTEE
(Georgia Division)
2
IMMUTABLE LAWS
Ever since Cain shed his brother's blood amid the glories of ,
Eden there have been theorists, dreamers and politicians who have
offered their pet schemes and impracticalities as a panacea for all
the ills of the world. They have argued and planned and endea¬
vored to circumvent immutable law and prevent the levying of
penalties for the violation of this law. But no sort of theory will
nullify or in any way change things that have been fixed by the
Master's hand.
When Nature clothed some men with white skin and others with
red, yellow or black, it was Nature's way of marking these men
as members of different races. When the dweller by the Congo
was given an appetite that would permit him to relish the cooked
flesh of his father it marked him as a different sort of man from
those dwelling along the banks of the Thames or the Mississippi.
When the black man of Africa was "given instincts and "out-
stincts" at utter variance with those of the American white man
it was Nature saying that these two races could never be amal¬
gamated into a political entity or moulded into a relationship of
social equality.
Our Racial and Inter-Racial Committees claim to recognize
this fact, but by both precept and example they are teaching the
contrary.
THE DORSEY PAMPHLET
Hugh M. Dorsey, Governor of Georgia, backed by a committee
of local men, who themselves are backed by the negro organizations
of the North, has permitted to be published and circulated over
the country a pamphlet purporting to set forth conditions in this
state with reference to the negro. This pamphlet is unfair, un¬
just and untrue. It was born of a bad spirit and its circulation
is one of the vilest slanders ever heaped upon the people of Georgia.
Mr. Dorsey is, of course, a political sore-head—disappointed
over the loss of his popularity and prestige; but should have been
unwilling, even in defeat, to malign the men who made him and
to bring reproach upon the state of his birth. Whatever his mo¬
tive, his spirit is bad!
His conduct is unworthy any man representing a sovereign
state.
It may be possible that the governor is turning over in his mind
the fact that the National Government is about to again make the
negro a political entity in Georgia, and he may be bidding for the
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colored vote. Certain it is that he would need it if he were ever
again to stand for office in this state!
Hugh M. Dorsey is a political accident. He was swept mo
the governor's chair on a tidal wave of race hatred and is n°w e
flotsam and jetsam of that receding wave. In his final e or s
to find anchorage he is marooned amidst the reflex wrec age o
his former plans, and now as driftwood on a turbulent sea seeks
shelter and safety on a passing ship whose flag he formerly de¬
nounced.
WHY THIS FAILURE?
Nowhere in his pamphlet does he refer to the white men mur¬
dered by the criminal negroes; nowhere does he tell you of the white
women ravished and butchered by black brutes of uncontrollable
passion; nowhere does he inform you that John Williams, of Jas¬
per County, was convicted on the testimosy of a criminal negro,
and sentenced to life imprisonment for murder the negro
says he himself committed; nowhere does he tell you of the boast¬
ful spirit created in negro breasts by his propaganda, and no¬
where does he remind you of the inevitable results of this politi¬
cal bootlicking and willingness to slander his entire state because,
here and there, some one has committed a crime.
No, he does not suggest the results, but every red-blooded
American citizen now living on Georgia soil knows what the end
will be if such campaigns of slander do not cease. The governor
says his pamphlet was meant to call the people's attention to these
disgraceful conditions existing in Georgia; THIS pamphlet is meant
to call the people's attention to the libelous slanders and unprovable
citations of the governor's pamphlet.
A CHANGED FRONT
When John Slaton visited New York and slandered Georgia
by declaring that Leo Frank, who was convicted by a Georgia court
and the sentence affirmed by every court in the land, did not have
a fair trial—when Slaton thus misrepresented the state Hugh Dor¬
sey grew red in the face and rode into the governor's chair de¬
nouncing these charges and defending the "dear old state."
Now it is Mr. Dorsey who goes to New York and adds insinua¬
tions even to the slanders of Slaton. He goes at the expense of men
who seem to delight in defending the criminal negro of Georgia,
and when he returns he acts as a tool in sinister hands to blacken
the character of his people in general and to slander the judiciary
4
in particular by putting in false light isolated court cases where
citations of charges were made with no reference whatever to the
evidence in the case. I wonder what connection there is between
the Governor's visit to New York and the slanders he brought back
with him. If he only meant, as he penitently affirms he did, to call
the people's attention to certain dangers which he claimed to fore¬
see, why in the name of high heaven did he have to go to New
York to begin his reformation?
Stripped of his office the governor might sojourn in New York
for fifty years without attracting any undue attention, but as gov¬
ernor of Georgia, no matter how small he may be nor how con¬
temptible his mission, he was certain of a hearing. If the "local
committee" desired to blacken the good name of the state and put
her people in an unenviable light they certainly sent the right man
to represent them.
If Governor Dorsey and his committee were honest searchers
after truth why did they not consult court-records and court-offi¬
cials and find out the truth instead of hiring men to hob-nob with
criminal negroes and low-down white men who are too cowardly
to sign their names to slanders they instigate.
KEEPING THE RECORD STRAIGHT
The governor never consulted the court-records or court
officials for his published citations; but sent his paid lackeys evi¬
dently under instructions to get information from sorry white men
who would not sign their statements and from criminal negroes.
This fact is borne out by the following quotation from Judge
Searcy's letter to the governor:
Notwithstand twenty-three grand jurors investigated the
cases and returned indictments, and twelve trial jurors, after
hearing the evidence and argument of counsel, convicted the
accused and "one of the best and most honorable judges in
Georgia" (according to your published reference to me) ap¬
proved the verdict—all being sworn officers of the state acting
under oath—neither you nor your investigator claim to have
even inquired of any of them, nor of state's counsel, Hon.
E. M. Owen, nor the official court stenographer, "nor any
officer of the court, as to the evidence or proceedings in court,
nor to have read the record, but you and your investigator
preferred to, and did go to others (assuming for the argument
that you have the letters you claim to have), none of whom
were under oath, nor claiming to have first-hand knowledge,
and on their unsworn statement, made exparte in secret,
you undertake to upset the solemn adjudication of the Su¬
perior Court, condemn the fairness of the trial, impute perjury
to the jury and an improper sentence of the prisoner to the
5
judge. Such attitude and conduct on the part of your investi¬
gator, and you, as governor, beggars my contempt.
The Upson county grand jury takes notice of the governor s
pamphlet in the following published statement:
It has come to our notice through an Atlanta daily ne^s-
paper and also printed in pamphlet form, of which a copy _
shown us, on peonage, lynchings and mob violence, torcing
the negro to leave Upson county, written by Hon; xlugn
Dorsey, governor of Georgia, and published by some *"ace
league of Atlanta. We have thoroughly investigated these
charges from every source and standpoint and find them to
be utterly false from beginning to end. No such conditions
exist or ever have exited in this county. Members of this
body were present at the trial of the negro referred to and
said negro received as fair trial as could be given any man
anywhere. We are at, a loss to know why the governor of
Georgia should wish to slander his people without first ascer¬
taining the facts in the case, which could have been secured
from the clerk of the Superior Court of Upson county, or
from the Court of Appeals of Georgia.
Judge Searcy points out in his review of the Dorsey pamphlet
that the citations made by the governor are without foundation in
fact, yet, admitting that every one of them is true, still less than
one-hundredth of one per cent of the negro population of Georgia
would be affected. But the governor is willing to slander two
million white people in order to court favor with Northern organi¬
zations and. get his picture in the Literary Digest.
EFFECT ON NEGRO
Such advertising is the worst thing that could happen to the
negro just at this time. It creates a sort of dream in his mind
of some fast-approaching day when these big broad-minded white
men are going to usher in for him a reign of peace and cessation
from toil evermore.
This quotation is taken from Hon. Sam Olive's letter to Gov¬
ernor Dorsey. Mr. Olive is president of the Georgia Senate:
Georgia is 80 per cent rural in population. Its principal
business is agriculture. The so-called race problem is also
an agricultural problem. The cotton planter is right now
having the hardest time he. has had in this generation. His
situation is serious. He has to hire help by the year. When
he plants and fertilizes his crop and furnishes his hands with
the necessaries of life for several months he cannot aHow
things to stop without financial ruin.
He is obliged to exercise some control over his labor.
He is going to exercise some control over his labor. False'
peonage charges at this time serve no good purpose. Instead
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°f throwing the mantle of martyrdom over outrageous
criminals, and calumny over white people, teach the negro
that while the peonage law will protect him or anybody else
from involuntary servitude, it was never intended to facili¬
tate the breaking of honest contracts.
THE MUNICIPAL LEAGUE
From one of the daily newspapers we take the following state¬
ment, which is self-explanatory :
It is currently reported here that John Eagan and Marion
Jackson, of Atlanta, and Archibald Blackshear, of Augusta,
paid for the pamphlet recently printed by Governor Dorsey
in which the governor took occasion to greatly reflect upon
the state of Georgia, and which statement has brough forth
very warm statements defending the state by Hon, John W.
Bennett, district attorney for the Southern District of Geor¬
gia; Judge W. E. H. Searcy, Jr., judge of the Flint Circuit,
and the Guardians of Liberty of Macon.
The above named gentlemen are at the head of what is
known as the Municipal League of Georgia. It came out
during the trial of John S. Williams, of "murder farm" fame,
that Hon. William H. Howard, of Augusta, had been employed
at the instance of the above named gentlemen, and a great
deal of unfavorable comment has been aroused here as a
result of the activities of the Municipal League officials
in bringing the state of Georgia into such unwarranted promi¬
nence as a result of the peonage talk.
MACON CITIZENS PROTEST
At a meeting of "The Guardians of Liberty" of Macon, Ga.,
on May 9th, resolutions calling for Governor Dorsey's impeachment
were passed and the governor's pamphlet handled without gloves.
The resolutions declared that "Dorsey, like Samson, in dying would
destroy the Temple also." Continuing, the resolutions declare*
Mr. Dorsey desires to enter upon an ex parte trial of
the State of Georgia before the ministry and press—a great
and good tribunal, but irregular. The State and Federal
constitutions provide the procedure in all criminal cases,
and do not contemplate any cause for action being tried by "
church or press; they provide means for apprehending and
punishing criminals, which is the basic principle of our legal
jurisprudence, and also the foundation of American civil¬
ization—a principle bought with blood, and will be so main¬
tained if necessary.
This astute lawyer (Mr. Dorsey) comes before his selected
(or packed) tribunal and refers to "Case Number" so-and-so
in "County Number" so-and-so. The counties of Georgia are
named, not numbered, and when he charges twenty-nine
counties of the State with crime and designates them only
by numbers, he brings every county under suspicion and
makes him guilty of committing the crime of libel against
all the other counties. In failing to name his informants,
his veracity is open to question, and in failing to name any
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one person in his charges, every white man in Georgia
stands indicted with crime before the world!
Dorsey should be compelled to publish another pamphlet
and mail it to the same people receiving the first, naming
the counties, the crimes, and every party connected therewith
in any manner—the criminal, the victim, and the source of
information-^the tribunal to which he has appealed should
also demand this if it desires to be fair and impartial.
There is a tangible, sinister influence militantly active
along certain lines in America (subject to proof), and Mr.
Dorsey is doing its work well. We would presume to warn
the ministry in Georgia against co-operating with him. Be
careful—there may be "death in the pot." If Dorsey will not
say "Thou art the man!" beware of him. That wrong is
often done the negro no one will deny; but the black man is
not the only one suffering from wrongs in this land, and the
course pursued by Mr. Dorsey will cause all to reap the whirl¬
wind, which is the object, it is believed, of the indivious power
and motive behind the whole matter.
Whereas, Hugh M. Dorsey has by publishing and circu¬
lating, or permitting the circulation of, the above named
pamphlet, defamed and libeled the State of Georgia and her
citizens, therefore be it
Resolved, That we call on all loyal sons of this State
to join with us in demanding that Hugh M. Dorsey sub¬
stantiate his charges at once by issuing a statement setting
out all relevant matter and details; and if he fails to do so
immediately, institute impeachment proceedings against him.
GUARDIANS OF LIBERTY.
Macon, Ga.
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A LOYAL COMMIT! EE
After the Dorsey pamphlet had aroused the militant forces all
over the state and called forth denunciations from bench, platform
and pulpit, his loyal committee had a special called session in
order to commend the good governor for piling infamy on the white
men and courts of Georgia.
This committee is composed of representative men, ministers,
lawyers, and capitalists. They are men of good charcater, but
undoubtedly do not see what the great majority of Georgians see,
—that their propaganda will be the negro's undoing and the white
men's sorrow.
Misguided philanthropists can become the worst sort of men¬
ace to a community.
Altruism attempted without proper knowledge and study can
work greater harm to a community than any kind of activity.
Georgia is sleeping on the verge of a precipice unaware of her
danger, because the danger lies in the efforts of such men as com¬
pose this Dorsey committee, men in whom the people have the
utmost confidence, and some of whom beyond question, are acting
in good faith in their efforts to settle the race question.
They are furnishing the negro a rope with which to hang him¬
self.
The race question has become a controversy between the two
factions of the white race, and the negro question is no longer
the serious one for consideration.
Meeting frequently with the negro leaders, the above-mentioned
white leaders, tell the colored man that he is not getting a square
deal; they sympathize with him in what they term his unjust
treatment at the hands of the white race. These things are said
to the negro leader with all,good faith by the white men making
up the race-relation committee, but when the negro returns to his
own lodge, his church, or his secret organization, he gives it out
that the white people are afraid of the colored man and that if
the state laws do not force the white people to be more just to the
negro the governor is going to ask the United States government
to come down here and force the white folks to behave themselves.
It is this feature of the question that makes the situation dan¬
gerous to the white man, for the negro will find courage to back
him in any dastardly enterprise that may come into his mind if
he believes he will be backed by the state and the federal govern¬
ment,
Admitting the shameful things that occurred at the Williams"
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plantation, and admitting several other cruel things that have hap¬
pened to the negroes in Georgia within recent years, there is every
reason for the people of Georgia to feel a deep sense of shame, but
when cases that date back many years and others that have no
truth in them whatever are brought forth to make the people of
Georgia look blacker before the eyes of the world, the time has
come to call a halt.
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A FEW PLAIN QUESTIONS—AND
ONE OR TWO ANSWERS
Do conditions in this state, insofar as treatment of the negro
is concerned, warrant any man, to say nothing of the governor of
the state, depicting it as the "American Belgian Congo?"
Where is the justification or excuse for any citizen of Georgi^
making a public statement which warrants critics of Georgia from
without the state to assert that the negro is practically enslaved
in Georgia and that "conditions rival those which preceded the
Civil War?"
Are the people of Georgia so lawless and so brutal in their rela¬
tions with other men that only an exposure of their laxity and their
brutality to the outside world can goad them into reforms?
Is the method of holding them up to the contempt and scorn
of the outside world a more effective method of securing reforma¬
tions and enforcement of law than taking the matter under advise¬
ment with Georgians themselves, pointing out to them the existing
evils and thus putting our house in order through earnest co¬
operation and mutual understanding?
Is it necessary for the governor of Georgia, or any other official
of this state, or any body of men, to insult the judiciary, the law
enforcement officers and the people who elect them to office in order
that the National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People shall further its announced purpose to abolish the "Jim
Crow" law in the South, obtain a Federal law to punish lynching,
obtain the ballot for the negro in the South or reduce the repre¬
sentation of the Southern states in Congress, and obtain "equal
rights under the law," which means social equality?
Oh, yes, we know the N. A. A. C. P. insists it isn't seeking social
equality, but it succeeded a few weeks ago in jamming through the
Pennsylvania House of Representatives a social equality bill which
was finally defeated in a Senate committee by a close vote.
Is it necessary to damn an entire state and its people for the
sins of a few by citing a total of 135 crimes with blank names and
dates and not even naming the counties in Which the alleged crimes
were committed?
Is it fair to draw a blanket indictment against the people of
Georgia without confronting them with the time and place of the
alleged crime and the names of the witnesses?
The alleged mistreatment of the negro in the South has been
a sweet morsel to be rolled under the tongues of conscienceless
critics of the South since the Reconstruction Period. Admitting
that the truth, in all conscience, is bad enough, is it fair or just to
ll
furnish these critics with a fresh supply of ammunition based on
statements of conditions which we know do not even approach
the truth ?
Is it fair to spread these charges over the country, even were
they all true, denouncing white citizens for their commission, with¬
out one word of warning or advice to the negro race to abide the
line of demarcation which separates the two races? Is it fair to
the white race? Is it fair to the negro race?
Which is better in our relations with the negro—to tell him the
truth frankly and in all sincerity, or to deceive him by half promises
and ineffective compromises and then let him find out later, when
the issue is squarely drawn, that he has been deceived by the
people from whom he had the greatest right of expecting frankness
and sincerity?
Do we progress in our efforts to solve the "negro problem" when
we sidestep the only real race issue and deal in maningless platitudes
about a "square deal ?"
If it is only a "square deal" that is sought for the negro he can
and will get it.> He gets it now in the vast majority of instances
in spite -of the admitted fact that there is a small percentage of
our population which is not at all times fair and just in dealing
with the negro. And, to get this "square deal," it is not necessary
to parade before the world these instances of injustice.
But, if there is a deeper purpose behind this agitation of the
"race issue," a sinister purpose which has not yet dawned on those
who are earnestly and sincerely seeking to improve the negro race
and better its relations with the white race, then we must change
our tactics and face the issue openly, frankly and honestly, else it
were better for us of today and for generations yet unborn that
we cease all our negotiations and stop all our inter-racial confer¬
ences and throw the entire burden of our salvation on Him who
holds the fate of the universe in the hollow of His hand.
, The committee in charge of the preparation of this booklet is con¬
vinced there IS such a sinister influence back of this racial propa-
I ganda. It charges that this influence is the National Association
for the Advancement of Colored People with headquarters in New
York City, officered and financed and influenced in large part by men
who' are neither negro nor white! '
The committee also charges that this association is not sincere,
that it has not the best interests of the negro race at heartland that
the public utterances' of its representatives and the voice of its
press prove this charge and tend only to widen the "breach between
the races, and that unless its "methods are changed it will drive both
, to a clash that will inevitably mean destruction for one or the other
12