Petition of the Citizens of Winnsboro, South Carolina to the President and Congress concerning lynching of Frazier Baker
3/5/1898
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On February 22,1898, Frazier Baker (the postmaster of Lake City, South Carolina) and his family awoke to discover that a fire had been deliberately set to the back of their home, where the local post office was located. Baker and his daughter Julia were shot to death, and their bodies were left to cremate. Baker’s wife, Lavinia, and daughters Rosa and Cora were each shot through the arm, and his son, Lincoln, was shot in the arm and in the stomach.
When news of the atrocity spread, outraged citizens wrote to the President, members of Congress, and the Department of Justice demanding federal help to fight racial violence. In this petition from Winnsboro, South Carolina sent to the President and Congress (and referred to the Department of Justice), the citizens of this town condemn the perpetrators of the lynching and call the crime the "blackest deed the historian has had to hand the posterity in our loved state."
When news of the atrocity spread, outraged citizens wrote to the President, members of Congress, and the Department of Justice demanding federal help to fight racial violence. In this petition from Winnsboro, South Carolina sent to the President and Congress (and referred to the Department of Justice), the citizens of this town condemn the perpetrators of the lynching and call the crime the "blackest deed the historian has had to hand the posterity in our loved state."
Transcript
HARVARD UNIVERSITY,CAMBRIDGE, MASS.
Wm. H. Ferris
#5 Divinity House,
March 4, 1898.
Attorney-General John W. Griggs,
My Dear Sir:
I was one of the invited speakers at the Faneuil Hall meeting and Mr. Teamoh and myself were the two men who framed the telegram that was sent to Pres. Wm. McKinley. In the resolutions adopted at the Faneuil Hall meeting it was decided to make an appeal to Congress and to the executive head of the Government. By the authority and on the wish and advice of those who called the Faneuil Hall meeting, I send this letter, which is an expression of the sentiment of the meeting. The committee and those interested in the Faneuil Hall Meeting have but one favor to ask of you, and that is, that you
cause this letter to be read, as soon as possible, before the Cabinet of the United States.
Respectfully,
HARVARD UNIVERSITY,
CAMBRIDGE, MASS.
To the ^Cabinet of the UNITED STATES:
A largely attended mass meeting of colored citizens of Boston and vicinity, at which some white citizens were present, was held on February 28th in Faneuil Hall, to protest against the murder of the colored postmaster of Lake City, S. C. by a mob on the night of Feb. 21st. And the sentiments expressed at that meeting are echoed by the finest culture and best manhood of both races.
The Independent truly says: "There are other general causes of the ill-will to America for which we are to blame. The enormous number of murders and lynchings in our Southern and Western States makes an impression on the European mind, as it should. Here we are verily guilty".
Indeed, the national honor is as much at stake in failing to protect the rights and lives of American citizens at home as it is in failing to protect the rights and lives of American citizens abroad. And whenever America criticises Spain for her treatment of Cuba, France for her treatment of Zola, and Turkey
for her treatment of the Armenians, whenever America protests against the wrongs committed against Cuba, the fact that the United States allows so many murders and lynchings to go unpunished
will always be a taunt in the mouths of other nations. The United States bears the disgrace of permitting more unpunished murders and lynchings than any other civilized nation in the world.
2.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY,
CAMBRIDGE, MASS.
There are two reasons why the fiendish murder of Postmaster Baker and the infant in its mother's arms, the dastardly attack upon unarmed and helpless women is possible in America. In the first place, there is an apparent apathy at the fact that men for no other reason than that Negro blood flows in their veins, are at the mercy of a lawless mob. Public sentiment has in the past apologized for the lynchers instead of condemning them.
In the second place, neither the Federal Government nor the local authorities have in the past made any effort to discover or prosecute the perpetrators of this awful crime.
In case of war with Spain this government would not hesitate to call upon Negro soldiers to protect the rights of white American citizens abroad; and yet will not this government protect the lives of colored American citizens at home? When we are threatened with war, ought not this government so to treat
the Negro that he shall continue in the future to be as patriotic and as loyal to this country as he has been in the past?
As one of the invited speakers at the Faneuil Hall meeting, I know that I am voicing the sentiment of all those white and colored persons assembled in Faneuil Hall, when I say that the ^Cabinet of the United States should listen to the cry of the Charleston News and Courier, when it declares: "We hope that
3.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY,
CAMBRIDGE, MASS.
the United States authorities will move in the Lake City case without delay and that no guilty man will be suffered to escape". It is the unmistakable duty of the Federal Government to discover and prosecute those who shot a Negro postmaster and burned the U. S. Mail. It will be to the undying shame of this country if Congress and the Federal Government take no action with regard to the matter.
Those who called the Faneuil Hall meeting and all of those assembled there wait to hear an expression from the Cabinet of the United States upon the same.
Respectfully,
William Henry Ferris
Harvard Divinity School,
Cambridge, Mass.
EG. Walter
W. D. Johnson
Edward Everett Brown.
This primary source comes from the General Records of the Department of Justice.
National Archives Identifier: 12409355
Full Citation: Petition of the Citizens of Winnsboro, South Carolina to the President and Congress concerning lynching of Frazier Baker; 3/5/1898; Case File 3463/98: February 1898 - February 1899; Year Files, 1884 - 1903; General Records of the Department of Justice, Record Group 60; National Archives at College Park, College Park, MD. [Online Version, https://docsteach.org/documents/document/winnsboro-petition, April 27, 2025]Rights: Public Domain, Free of Known Copyright Restrictions. Learn more on our privacy and legal page.
