PETITION re LYNCHING

To The President

and Congress of the United States:

WE, the committee of the NEGRO SILENT PROTEST PARADE, representing the colored people of Greater New York and the sentiment of the people of Negro descent throughout this land, come to you to present a petition for redress of grievances.

In the last thirty-one years 2,867 colored men and women have been lynched by mobs without trial. Less than a half dozen persons out of the tens of thousands involved have received any punishment whatsoever for these crimes, and not a single one has been punished for murder. In addition to this, mobs have harried and murdered colored citizens time and time again with impunity, culminating in the latest atrocity at East St. Louis where nearly a hundred innocent, hard working citizens were done to death in broad daylight for seeking to earn an honest living.

WE believe that this spirit of lawlessness is doing untold injury to our country and we submit that the record proves that the States are either unwilling or unable to put down lynching and mob violence.

WE ask, therefore, that lynching and mob violence be made a national crime punishable by the laws of the United States and that this be done by federal enactment, or if necessary, by constitutional amendment. We believe that there can be found in recent legislation abundant precedent for action of this sort, and whether this be true or not, no nation that seeks to fight the battles of civilization can afford to march in blood-smeared garments.

WE ask, therefore, immediate action by the Congress and the President of the United States.

Dated New York, July 28, 1917.

FREDERICK ASBURY CULLEN, Chairman

CHARLES DOUGLAS MARTIN, Secretary

*Did not go to Washington

The above petition to the President and Congress of the United States was presented at the White House, Washington, D.C., on August 1st, 1917, to J. P. Tumulty, Secretary to the President who was “too busy” to receive the Delegation of Negroes from New York.