Between the Covers

Unbound. Tabloid newspaper. Horizontal and vertical folds, possibly as issued. Printed in six columns. Cheap paper toned, light chipping in upper margin not affecting any printing, tears at the folds, else about very good. A local newspaper from north central Virginia relatively near the West Virginia border, that seems to have, as the title implies, reviewed and reprinted news from other sources, with some emphasis on racial news.

The lead article at the top of column four is short but chilling. In full: "Lynch Black Brakeman, Charged with Assaulting Yardmaster Kernan, at Manchester, Ga. Manchester, Ga. Oct. 20. Jerry Lovelace, a negro brakeman, charged with assaulting Yardmaster W. F. Kernan on Tuesday night, was taken from Mashal Collier here yesterday by a mob of about thirty men and lynched. The mob first secured Collier, taking his gun and keys from him, after which they went to the jail for the negro. After the lynching the mob went back to the jail, returning the keys to the marshal and dispersed. Not a shot was fired." The headline in the first column, in this case locally reported from Lynchburg, Virginia, deals with the killing of a "Bad Negro [Who] Created a Reign of Terror on Jackson Street".

Disturbing reportage in the decade that saw an unprecedented number of lynchings.

Item #456961