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184 THE CRISIS [[image]] E.E. THOMPSON'S BAND, NEW YORK CITY. 185 National Association for the Advancement of Colored People THE LYNCHING AT MEMPHIS. The Field Secretary, during the latter part of May and the first part of June, made a tour of the branches in the larger cities of the Middle West. He attended and addressed the St. Louis District Conference, which met at St. Louis, and the Great Lakes Conference, which met at Detroit. He also visited and spoke for the branches in Louisville, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Chicago, and Cleveland. From Cleveland he proceeded to Memphis to investigate and make a report of the burning of Ell Person. The following is a condensation of that report: On Monday, April 30, near six o'clock, Antoinette Rappal, sixteen years old, got on her bicycle to go to school. She never returned. On Wednesday, May 2, the "Memphis Press" printed a story of the missing girl under the headline, "War Lures Girl of 15 to Leave," and containing an account of Antoinette's oft expressed desire to join the Red Cross. The girl's mother was reported as believing that her daughter had left home for that purpose. The Memphis papers of Thursday, May 3, published accounts of the finding of Antoinette in the Wolf River bottoms. The girl's head had been severed from the body with an ax. The only clues were: dents of an ax in the soft ground, filled with blood, a man's white handkerchief with the corners torn off, and fresh automobile tracks nearby. Later, the detectives found a white vest or coat near the scene of the murder. The theory held by the police was that the crime had been committed by two men. This theory was held because Antoinette was strong and athletic, weighing 130 pounds, and because the position of her body indicated that more than one man had abused and slain her. Suspicion fell on Negro wood choppers, a number of whom worked in the vicinity. One of these was arrested but was released when his white employer testified that he had been at work all day on the date of the crime. The papers of Thursday morning also carried an account of an attack on a white woman by two unknown white men, who got away. On Thursday night, Sheriff Tate arrested a deaf and dumb Negro named Dewitt Ford, who claimed to have witnessed the tragedy. Ford accused Dan Armstrong, a Negro timer cutter, of being the criminal. Armstrong was arrested, but P.O. Stockley, his white employer, clearly established that he had reported to him for work at six o'clock Monday morning and had worked all day; so Armstrong was released. The Memphis papers on Saturday, May 5, reported that the city detective force did not agree with the sheriff's office on the theory of the crime. The detectives held that the crime had been committed by a white man. The following excerpts regarding the break between the city detective force and the sheriff's office on the theory of the case are from the "Commercial Appeal" of May 5: "Detectives on Case. "Are Working on Theory That White Man Committed Crime. "Brunner and Hoyle, city detectives, who were assigned to assist the sheriff's office in investigating the Rappal murder mystery, have thus far kept their discoveries to themselves. It is understood at detective headquarters that they are working on the theory that a white man, and not a Negro, may have committed the crime. * * * "There are some circumstances that bear out this theory. The girl's bicycle, when it was found, was leaning against a tree only a hundred feet or so from the bridge and the public road. The basket in front contained her school apron, her books, a package of lunch and a small bouquet of flowers. The officers argue that if the girl had been seized as she was riding that these articles would have been thrown from the basket, and the wheel would probably have been dragged away and thrown out of sight. * * * "A handkerchief was found nearby. It did not belong to the girl. Yesterday the sheriff found a white coat, such as barbers or waiters wear. It was some distance away and bore no bloodstains. No Negro, it is argued, would have such a coat. Few Negroes of the class to which the two suspects who are in custody belong ever carry a white handkerchief. * * *"
