In general, however, the violence that had characterized the year 1917 continued through 1918 and 1919.  In the one state of Tennessee, within less than a year and on separate occasions, three Negroes were burned at the stake.  On May 22, 1917, near Memphis, Ell T. Person, nearly fifty years of age, was burned for the alleged assault and murder of a young woman; and in this case the word “alleged” is used advisedly, for the whole matter of the fixing of the blame for the crime and the fact that the man was denied a legal trial left grave doubt as to the extent of his guilt.  On Sunday, December 2, 1917, at Dyersburg, immediately after the adjournment of services in the churches of the town, Lation Scott, guilty of criminal assault, was burned; his eyes were put out with red-hot irons, a hot poker was rammed down his throat, and he was mutilated in unmentionable ways.  Two months later, on February 12, 1918, at Estill Springs, Jim McIlheron, who had shot and killed two young white men, was also burned at the stake.  In Estill Springs it had for some time been the sport of young white men in the community to throw rocks at single Negroes and make them run.  Late one afternoon McIlheron went into a store to buy some candy.  As he passed out, a remark was made by one of three young men about his eating his candy.  The rest of the story is obvious.

As horrible as these burnings were, it is certain that they did not grind the iron into the Negro’s soul any more surely than the three stories that follow.  Hampton Smith was known as one of the harshest employers of Negro labor in Brooks County, Ga.  As it was difficult for him to get help otherwise, he would go into the courts and whenever a Negro was convicted and was unable to pay his fine or was sentenced to a term on the chain-gang, he would pay the fine and secure the man for work on his plantation.  He thus secured the services of Sidney Johnson, fined thirty dollars for gambling.  After Johnson had more than worked out the thirty dollars he asked pay for the additional time he served.  Smith refused to give this and a quarrel resulted.  A few mornings later, when Johnson, sick, did not come to work, Smith found him in his cabin and beat him.  A few evenings later, while Smith was sitting in his home, he was shot through a window and killed instantly, and his wife was wounded.  As a result of this occurrence the Negroes of both Brooks and Lowndes counties were terrorized for the week May 17-24, 1918, and not less than eleven of them lynched.  Into the bodies of two men lynched together not less than seven hundred bullets are said to have been fired.  Johnson himself had been shot dead when he was found; but his body was mutilated, dragged through the streets of Valdosta, and burned.  Mary Turner, the wife of one of the victims, said that her husband had been unjustly treated and that if she knew who had killed him she would have warrants sworn out against them.  For saying this she too was lynched, although she