248
●
(CIVIL RIGHTS.) LYNCHING.
Seven
letters connected to the lynching of Samuel
J. Bush in Decatur, Illinois on June 2, 1893
(several with their envelopes); a newspaper
clipping with the original “Open Letter”
regarding the lynching of Samuel J. Bush,
plus the remnants of a larger, old envelope
that housed the letters.
total of 22 pages, pencil
and pen, one typed, various sizes.
SHOULD BE SEEN
.
Decatur, Illinois, 1893
[1,500/2,500]
AN EXCEPTIONAL COLLECTION OF LETTERS
REACTING TO
“
AN OPEN LETTER TO THE PARTICI
-
PANTS IN THE MOB OF JUNE
2, 1893
BY REVEREND
N
.
M
.
BAKER OF LONG CREEK TOWNSHIP
.”
The letter,
by Reverend N. M. Baker, an African American was
printed in the Decatur Republican, and expressed abhor-
rence at the “crime” of lynching Samuel J. Bush, for an
alleged rape. Included is a four page letter from Reverend
Baker, author of the Open Letter, and several other let-
ters, the majority of which are in sympathy with
Reverend Baker. However, there is one dissenter who is convinced of Bush’s crime, and incensed at
Baker’s insinuation that one or both of the alleged victims might have lied. The story of Samuel J.
Bush, and his death is recorded in detail in the Illinois Historical Journal, Volume 83, Autumn,
1990 (“Join hands and hearts with law and order.” The 1893 Lynching of Samuel J. Bush and the
Response of Decatur’s African American Community.) The sequence of events is classic. Bush, a
homeless man was traveling South on foot, and stopped at two farms, asking for food. In the first
instances, the women claimed an attempted rape and was able to resist her attacker; but the second
woman reported that she was indeed raped. The incident really shocked and divided an otherwise
racially calm community.
ALL LETTERS HAVE BEEN TRANSCRIBED
.
249
●
(RACISM—LYNCHING.) HERRING, B. W.
Caste and Class.
Broadside, 13
1
⁄
4
x 6
1
⁄
8
inches; creases
where folded; together with
two autograph letters
signed
(June 6, and July 2, 1903) from the author of
the broadside to his brother in Tallahassee, Florida dis-
cussing the burning alive of a Negro at Wilmington
Delaware in 1903; one of them on Goldsboro Argus
stationary.
Goldsboro, N.C., 1903
[1,000/1,500]
The author of the broadside, as well as the letters was B.W.
Herring, an editor on the Goldsboro Argus. The broadside
advertises Herring’s book “Caste and Class”, which recom-
mends a caste system for the United States as a solution to
the “Race Question.” The lot alludes to the lynching and
burning of a Negro in Wilmington Delaware. In his July
2nd letter, Herring writes: “Burning the Negro alive at
Wilmington seems to be the Yankee’s way of dealing with the
race question. The Negro must not touch the Yankee woman,
but when he assaulted the Southern woman, the Yankee cried
out ‘give him a fair trial.’. . .The South is sending Negroes
North to give the Yankee a little practical knowledge of his
brother in black.”
249
