A remarkable document from our movement. A 34-year-old Ho Chi Minh, then living in Moscow, working for the Comintern and writing as Nyguyen-ai-Quoc (Nguyen the Patriot) with an article on lynching and racism in the United States; a country against which he would lead among the most significant anti-imperialist struggles in history.

‘American Lynch-Justice: The Martyrdom of the Negro’ by Nguyen-ai-Quac (Ho Chi Minh) from International Press Correspondence. Vol. 4 No. 70. October 2, 1924.

It is generally known that the black race is the most suppressed and exploited of all the races of mankind. It is also generally known that the extension of capitalism and the discovery of the New World had as its immediate consequence the birth of slavery, which for centuries was the scourge of the Negroes and the bloody shame of humanity.

But perhaps it is not known to everybody that the Negroes of America, in the 65 years since their alleged emancipation, are still exposed to fearful moral and physical suffering, of which the most cruel and horrible is the so-called Lynch Justice.

The words “lynching” and “lynch justice” come from the word “Lynch”, the name of a Virginian planter. This American was a landowner and at the same time a Justice of the Peace. He made use of the confusion of the American War of Independence to get all the official functions of his district in his own hands. He imposed in a completely arbitrary manner the most severe and cruel punishments, without trial, and without any proper legal sentence.

This illegal and barbarous practice has, thanks to the supporters of slavery, spread further in the United States and is continued even to-day, thanks to the Ku-Klux-Klan and other secret societies.

A Typical Scene.

Imagine a threatening crowd of about 1000, 3000 or 10.000 persons, all of them, men, women and even children, filled with the maddest fury. Clenched fists, blood-shot eyes, cursing and abusing all these are bent upon a lustful, almost mad anticipation of an approaching crime. The crowd is armed with sticks, torches, revolvers, brooms, ropes, knives, shears, umbrellas, vitriol, in short, with every possible and conceivable kind of weapon with which one can wound or kill.

In the midst of this unbridled and ever-growing crowd, one sees a black figure, who is abused, pushed now to the right, now to the left, beaten, trodden on, scratched, covered with blood and almost dead.

That is a crowd of lynchers. They drag their victim, a Negro, along with them. The latter, surrounded by a wave of hatred and bestiality, is dragged by this white tormentors into a wood or to an open place. There he is tied to a tree, smothered with petroleum or some other inflammable material. Before the fire is lit and wraps his body in flames, one after another his teeth are knocked out, his eyes are gauged out, his hair is torn from his head in handfuls, tearing the skin along with it, leaving his skull one bleeding mass. The body is beaten until small pieces of flesh fly from it.

The Negro still breathes, but he no longer cries; for his tongue has been burnt out with a hot iron. The whole body is twisted and contorted like a snake which has been half trodden upon, where he has been burned on two or three sides with hot irons. An ear is cut off with a knife. “Oh, how black he is! How ugly he is!” exclaim the ladies, who tear the flesh from his face.

“We should burn him” cries one. “Not so fast” adds another. “Let him roast nice and slowly, so that he does not die too quickly, else there is no fun in it!”

The Negro is roasted and burned till his body is almost completely charred. But one death is not enough. Therefore the body is hung up, or to speak more correctly, they hang up what remains of his corpse and all the spectators clap their applause and cry “hurrah!”

When the crowd has had enough of this spectacle, the corpse is allowed to fall to the earth. They cut the ropes with which the negro was bound and hung, into small pieces, each of which is sold for three or five dollars. These are mementos which bring luck and over which the women haggle with one another. This “people’s justice”, as it is called, is over. The crowd is satisfied and leaves the place as if leaving a festival. Upon the smoking and stinking place there remains a mutilated, torn, black head, with a fearful almost questioning expression: “Is this civilisation?”

Some Statistical Data.

In the period between 1889 and 1919 there were, so far as it is possible to ascertain from available statistics, 2000 Negroes lynched, among them 51 women and young girls, as well 10 ex-soldiers who had served in the Great War for Right.

Of the 78 Negroes who were lynched in the year 1919, 11 were burned alive, 3 were burned after they had been killed, 31 were killed by shooting, 2 were tortured to death, I cut to pieces alive, 1 drowned, 11 were killed by various methods. The means by which the others were put to death is not known.

Among the various states of North America, Georgia heads the list with 22 victims. This is followed by Mississippi with 12 victims. In each state 3 of the victims were soldiers who were lynched while on active service.

As regards the accusations which were brought against the unfortunate victims, we quote the following:

One was killed because he was a member of the Non-Partisan League, another because he had distributed revolutionary literature;

another because he had openly expressed his opinion regarding the shameful lynch-justice;

another because he commented upon an encounter which had taken place in Chicago between Blacks and Whites;

another because he was known to be a speaker for the cause of the Negro;

yet another because he did not get out of the road along which he was walking and thereby frightened a white child who was in a motor-car.

In the year 1920 there were 50 cases of death through lynching, in the year 1923, 28 cases, the latter corroborated by statistics.

Who is responsible for the Lynch Justice?

These crimes have always been “explained” as due to economic jealousy and to economic causes in general. It may be that the Negroes of a certain district are alleged to be better off than the whites, it may be that the black workers opposed the incredible exploitation to which they are subjected. But in no case has anyone troubled about those who are really responsible. This is for the simple reason that they are always shielded by politicians, financiers, officials, and in particularly by the reactionary press.

When a case of lynch justice has taken place or is about to take place the press regards it as a rare opportunity in order to increase their circulation, they make a great show of it and relate the incident with such a gusto and with the description of every detail, as if it were a world-shaping event or a splendid popular festival. There is not the slightest reproach against the murderers, not a word of sympathy for the victims. Not a word of disgust against the whole proceedings.

White Victims of Lynch Justice.

But it is not only Blacks but also Whites, who venture to defend them, as for instance Mrs. Harriet Becher Stowe, the immortal authoress of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”, and her friends who have had to suffer greatly,

Elijah Lovejoy was killed. John Brown was hanged. Thomas Beach and Stephen Foster were persecuted. Attempts were made upon their lives, and they suffered imprisonment.

During the course of 30 years, 708 Whites, among them 11 women, have been lynched. Some of them because they have organised strikes, others because they had stood up for the cause of the Negro.

This is one of the fearful pictures of American “civilisation”.

International Press Correspondence, widely known as”Inprecorr” was published by the Executive Committee of the Communist International (ECCI) regularly in German and English, occasionally in many other languages, beginning in 1921 and lasting in English until 1938. Inprecorr’s role was to supply translated articles to the English-speaking press of the International from the Comintern’s different sections, as well as news and statements from the ECCI. Many ‘Daily Worker’ and ‘Communist’ articles originated in Inprecorr, and it also published articles by American comrades for use in other countries. It was published at least weekly, and often thrice weekly.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/international/comintern/inprecor/1924/v04n70-oct-02-1924-Inprecor-loc.pdf