Broken Monopoly

To its critics in the North and to its critics abroad (who know it only in the exaggerated lines of caricature), Southern justice is just another way of saying injustice in two words. But that it need not always be a white man's monopoly and is not always so, was shown last week by two Southern juries.

A Leather Strap. In Rome, Ga., a federal jury had listened for ten days to the story of what happened one night almost a year ago in the little (pop. 200) mountain town of Hooker, just across from the Tennessee line. There was not much argument over the facts. A hooded mob of Ku Kluxers planted a flaming cross in the front yard of Mrs. Mamie Clay, broke up a neighborhood party and then hauled seven Negroes off to a nearby schoolyard. There, one by one, they were ordered to strip off their trousers, were thrown to the ground and lashed with a wide leather strap.

It was the kind of story that local prosecutors often show no curiosity about. But the federal Government, taking the case out of Georgia's hands, charged chunky, placid Dade County Sheriff John W. Lynch, three deputies and six Klansmen with conspiring to violate the civilrights provisions of the 14th Amendment.* Sheriff Lynch had been present when the Klansmen grabbed the Negroes; one of the victims testified that he had asked the sheriff for protection and the sheriff had walked away. The first trial last December ended with a hung jury; last week a second set of jurors failed to find proof of conspiracy by the Klan. But they convicted Sheriff Lynch and Deputy William Hartline of misusing their office in defiance of the 14th Amendment.

A Shotgun Blast. In Walhalla, S.C., another jury listened to an even darker story. It was told by 14-year-old John Henry Davis, a frightened Negro boy. He was in the living room of "Uncle Mike" Rice's farmhouse on the night of November 12 when two white men rapped on the front door. Uncle Mike answered and he heard a voice asking what time it was. Before Rice could reply, a shotgun blast ripped into his leg, another tore him across the belly.

The two men forced young John Henry to get down beside the dying man. Then one cut a money belt with $300 from the old man's bleeding body and warned the boy not to move. Some time after the men left, John Henry got a rag and some water to wash the blood from Uncle Mike's wounds. It didn't do any good, he remembered: "After a while I called to Uncle Mike but Uncle Mike didn't answer." But it was not until next morning that he dared to go for the sheriff.

Two days later, Charleston County detectives picked up two sullen, slack-jawed young ex-convicts named LeRoy Parker and James Lawing in a highway diner near Charleston. It took an all-white jury only 4 1/2 hours to find both guilty of murder. Because the jury recommended mercy, the convicts were sentenced to life imprisonment.

* One of the amendments passed during Reconstruction days, which provides, among other things, that no state shall "deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."

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