Lynching of Wilbur Little

File:Early County Georgia Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Blakely Highlighted.svg (left) and Georgia (right)]]

Wilbur Little (also William{{Cite web|title=The Lynching Project: Early County|url=https://digihum.libs.uga.edu/exhibits/show/the-lynching-project--murder-a/georgia-historic-overview/early-county|access-date=July 26, 2020|website=African American Experience in Athens|archive-date=June 18, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200618175439/https://digihum.libs.uga.edu/exhibits/show/the-lynching-project--murder-a/georgia-historic-overview/early-county|url-status=dead}}{{Cite news|last=Gambino|first=Lauren|date=February 10, 2015|title=Jim Crow lynchings more widespread than first thought, report concludes|language=en-GB|newspaper=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/10/history-of-lynchings-and-racial-violence-continues-to-haunt-us|access-date=July 27, 2020|issn=0261-3077}} or Wilbert{{Cite news|last=Gilbert|first=Tony|date=March 25, 2015|title=The meanest little town...: A lingering humiliation from 96 years ago|newspaper=Early County News|location=Blakely, Georgia|url=https://www.earlycountynews.com/articles/the-meanest-little-town/|access-date=July 27, 2020}} in some sources) was a black American veteran of World War I, lynched in April 1919 in his hometown of Blakely, Georgia, for refusing to remove his military uniform. Servicemen who had been discharged from the army were permitted under War Department regulations to wear their service uniforms for three months after their demobilization date.{{Cite web|last=Onion|first=Rebecca|date=March 4, 2015|title=Red Summer: In 1919, white Americans visited awful violence on black Americans. So black Americans decided to fight back.|url=https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2015/03/civil-rights-movement-history-the-long-tradition-of-black-americans-taking-up-arms-to-defend-themselves-against-racial-violence.html|access-date=July 20, 2020|work=Slate Magazine|language=en}}{{Cite book|last=Krugler|first=David F.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c-KkBQAAQBAJ&dq=%22Wilbur+Little%22+lynching&pg=PA273|title=1919, The Year of Racial Violence: How African Americans Fought Back|date=December 8, 2014|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-316-19500-0|pages=41–42|language=en|via=Google Books}} Reportedly, Little was still in uniform beyond that date.{{Cite news|last=Klay|first=Phil|date=November 9, 2019|title=Opinion {{!}} The Soldiers We Leave Behind|language=en-US|newspaper=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/11/09/opinion/veterans-war-immigration.html|access-date=July 20, 2020|issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite book|last=Du Bois|first=William Edward Burghardt|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V8ARAQAAMAAJ&dq=%22Wilbur+Little%22+lynching&pg=PA155|title=The Crisis: A Record of the Darker Races|date=July 1919|publisher=National Association for the Advancement of Colored People|volume=18|pages=155|language=en|issue=3 (Whole No. 105)}} He was one of many African-American servicemen of the time who were subjected to violence for continuing to wear their uniforms after being discharged from the military.{{Cite web|date=December 9, 2016|title=Navy admiral gets it all wrong about Kaepernick at Pearl Harbor ceremony|url=https://andscape.com/features/navy-admiral-gets-it-all-wrong-about-kaepernick-at-pearl-harbor-ceremony/|access-date=July 20, 2020|website=Andscape|language=en-US}}

Little was killed by Blakely residents, but the details of his death are uncertain. One source says he was hanged and burned.{{Cite book|last=Fessenden|first=Tracy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Msy4DwAAQBAJ&dq=%22Wilbur+Little%22+lynching&pg=PT130|title=Religion Around Billie Holiday|date=April 27, 2018|publisher=Penn State Press|isbn=978-0-271-08720-7|language=en|via=Google Books}} Another states he was beaten to death.{{cite thesis|last=Mikkelsen|first=Vincent|pages=139–140|date=2007|title=Coming from Battle to Face a War: The Lynching of Black Soldiers in the World War I Era|type=PhD|publisher=Florida State University College of Arts and Sciences |s2cid=161488986|url=https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/dc00/c316c4dfc74a4b2806b59e52d3a1615c132f.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200227181222/https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/dc00/c316c4dfc74a4b2806b59e52d3a1615c132f.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=2020-02-27}} The lack of authoritative information about these types of killings was not uncommon.

Lynching

Little returned to Blakely wearing his military uniform, and was seen at the train station by a group of white men, who demanded he remove the uniform. He was threatened with arrest but, lacking civilian clothes, was allowed to return to his home in uniform.{{cite news|date=April 4, 1919|title=Army Uniform Cost Soldier His Life|page=1|periodical=The Chicago Defender (Big Weekend Edition)|agency=Century News Service|publication-date=April 5, 1919|url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/493381239/citation/425562165A8D4CAAPQ/1|access-date=August 3, 2020|id=ProQuest document ID 493381239}}{{Cite journal|last=Richardson|first=Allissa|date=January 2016|title=The Platform: How Pullman porters used railways to engage in networked journalism|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/289684786|journal=Journalism Studies|volume=17|pages=398–414|doi=10.1080/1461670X.2015.1110498|s2cid=148325904|via=Research Gate}} According to historian Isabel Wilkerson:

{{quote|Soon anonymous notes were warning him to leave town if he wanted to wear his uniform. Days later, a mob attacked him as he greeted friends congratulating him on his achievements. He was found beaten to death on the outskirts of town. He was wearing his uniform. He had survived the war only to be killed at home.{{Citation|last=Wilkerson|first=Isabel|title=The Warmth of Other Suns : The Epic Story of America's Great Migration|pages=145|isbn=978-1-4915-4542-3|oclc=881023508}}. Cites "Army Uniform Cost Soldier His Life," Chicago Defender, April 5, 1919, p. 1.}}

The lynching of Little was memorialized by poet Carrie Williams Clifford in "The Black Draftee from Georgia" (1922):{{Cite journal|last=Davis|first=David A.|date=2008|title=Not Only War Is Hell: World War I and African American Lynching Narratives|journal=African American Review|volume=42|issue=3/4|pages=477–491|jstor=40301248}}

{{poem quote|What though the hero-warrior was black?

His heart was white and loyal to the core;

And when to his loved Dixie he came back,

Maimed, in the duty done on foreign shore,

Where from the hell of war he never flinched,

Because he cried, 'Democracy,' was lynched.|char=|sign=|title=|source=}}

Claims of hoax

The story of Little's death appeared in the April 5, 1919 Chicago Defender. In May of that year, a number of other papers ran reports that the lynching was a hoax. Most notably, Blakely's Early County News published editorials on May 15 and 29.{{cite news|date=May 15, 1919|title=Genesis and Nemesis of a Lynching Story|page=4|newspaper=Early County News|location=Blakely, Georgia|url=https://gahistoricnewspapers.galileo.usg.edu/lccn/sn85034007/1919-05-15/ed-1/seq-4/|access-date=July 29, 2020|via=Georgia Historic Newspapers}}{{Cite news|date=May 29, 1919|title=A Matter of Fact and Truth|page=4|work=Blakely Early County News|location=Blakely, Georgia|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/crime-clipping-may-29-1919-1884714/|access-date=July 28, 2020|via=Newspaper Archive}} The latter asserted that "No negro has been lynched in this county because he refused to take off his soldier uniform" and that Little was still alive and employed on a farm. On May 24, the editor of the News, W. W. Fleming, wrote a letter to the New York Sun, again denying the lynching had occurred, and objecting to a letter run by The Sun several days earlier.{{Cite news|last=Fleming|first=W. W.|date=May 28, 1919|title=A Denial That a Negro Soldier Was Lynched in Blakely.|page=12 (column 6)|work=The Sun|url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030431/1919-05-28/ed-1/seq-12/|access-date=August 8, 2020|via=Library of Congress: Chronicling America}}{{Cite news|last=Holden|first=Wm. H.|date=May 21, 1919|title=The Lynching of a Negro Soldier in Georgia.|page=10 (column 6)|work=The Sun|url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030431/1919-05-21/ed-1/seq-10/|access-date=August 8, 2020|via=Library of Congress: Chronicling America}}

The Kingston Daily Freeman (May 8), the Winston-Salem Journal (May 13), the Raleigh News and Observer (May 15), and the Taylor Daily Press (May 19) all ran variations of a story questioning the accuracy of an April 20 report in the Philadelphia Public Ledger.{{Cite news|date=May 8, 1919|title=A Baseless Yarn|page=4|work=Kingston Daily Freeman|location=Kingston, New York|url=https://newspapers.com/clip/30382494/1919-georgia-negro-soldier-lynched/|access-date=July 20, 2020|via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news|date=May 13, 1919|title=Negro Agitators Cause Riots|page=4|work=Winston-Salem Journal|location=Winston-Salem, North Carolina|url=https://newspapers.com/clip/2309473/winston-salem-journal/|access-date=July 20, 2020|via=Newqspapers.com}}{{Cite news|date=May 15, 1919|title=A Lynching That Never Occurred|page=4|newspaper=News and Observer|location=Raleigh, North Carolina|url=https://newspapers.com/clip/55717802/a-lynching-that-never-occurred/|access-date=July 20, 2020|via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news|date=May 19, 1919|title=A Baseless Yarn|pages=2|newspaper=The Taylor Daily Press|location=Taylor, Texas|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/56255841/lynching-of-wilbur-little/|access-date=July 28, 2020}}The date is likely incorrect. April 20, 1919 was a Sunday; the Philadelphia Public Ledger was not published on Sundays. {{Cite web|title=Library of Congress: Chronicling America collection|url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045211/issues/1919/}} Assertions were made that the original reports erroneously mixed up the lynching of Little with another murder, that of Clifford Hughes.

= Investigation by the NAACP =

A month after the article appeared in the Chicago Defender the NAACP sent Monroe N. Work to Blakely to investigate the incident. On June 7, 1919, Work sent a telegram to NAACP officer J. R. Shillady stating "Have investigated report. Blakely, Georgia, lynching does not appear to have {{sic|occur|ed}}." Work concluded his investigation by recommending that allegations of a lynching be dropped. The denial by the Early County Times and the subsequent investigation by Work led the NAACP to delay publication of the Wilbur Little story. However, the organization eventually rejected the recommendation of their investigator, publishing the story in The Crisis three months later.

Lynching of Wilbur Little

Lynching

Claims of hoax

= Investigation by the NAACP =

See also

Notes

References

Further reading