Hanover College Triangle on
Lynching
March 11, 1916
Progressivism's ideals deeply permeated the collective psyche of the middle
class by the year 1916. The reforms that the movement sought to accomplish
could be seen in all forms of popular media including Hanover College's own
newspaper, The Triangle. In March 1916, the front page of The Triangle
featured an article on the problem of lynching in the South. This article
does not go into the grisly details of these vigilante hate crimes or those
directly affected by them. Instead it is a call to arms for the collegiate
male to be at the forefront of ending this great social evil through education
and understanding. This attitude is exemplary of the Progressive ideology,
suggesting that the middle class, superior in understanding and morality,
could change the deep seated racial problems of the South. This desire to
change the racial attitudes that plagued the South was a vast improvement
over the racial attitudes that were dominant at the time, yet they were overly
optimistic and ignorant of the true intensity of the racial divide in the
Jim Crow South. Just as the ideas and hopes expressed in the article are typical
of Progressive ideology, so too is this optimism and overconfidence in the
ability to cause great social change through what is essentially setting a
good example. This article typifies the Progressive outlook; it seeks to change
social problems using the power of supposedly superior middle class thinking
without questioning the social situations of those beneath the gold of the
gilded age. - John Bedan, '09
N.B. The text below is transcribed verbatim, including the occasional typographical
error.
"A Collegiate Move on Lynching," Hanover College Triangle,
1 Mar. 1916 , 1.
Since the only way to put an end to the lynching-spirit "seems
to be through a campaign of education," the Savanah News thinks the
University Commission on Southern Race Questions is "tackling the evil
in the right way." This Commission, composed of eleven representative
Southern college professors, met recently at Durham, N.C., and at the close
of their session issued a statement to the college men of the South on the
subject of lynching. The college men are appealed to because in the Commission's
opinion, they should be "in the front rank of those fighting for moral
and social progress."
The Commission then quote the 1914 Taskegee figures on lynchings-
which have, of course, been superseded as well as exceeded by the 1915 report
, and conclude with this earnest plea:
"These are terrible facts, Is there no remedy? Have we
not sufficient legal intelligence and machinery to take care of every case
of crime committed? Must we fall back on the methods of the jungle? Civilization
rests on obedience to law, which means the substitution of reason and deliberation
for impulse, instinct and passions. It is easy and tempting to obey the
latter, but to be governed by the former requires self-control, which comes
from the interposition of thought between impulse and action. Herein lies
the college man's opportunity to serve his fellows; to interpose deliberation
between their impulses and actions, and iu that way control both.
"Society has a right to expect college men to help in
molding opinion and shaping conduct in matters of this sort; is is their
privilege and duty to cooperate with others in leading crusades against
crime and mob rule and for law and legislation. The college man belongs
in the front rank of those fighting for moral and social progress. For this
reason, The University Commission make their first appeal to you, and urge
you strongly to cooperate with the press, the pulpit, the bar, officers
of the law, and all other agencies striving to eliminate this great evil,
by speaking out boldly when speech is needed, and letting your influence
be felt against it in decided, unmistakable measure and manner.
-Literary Digest