Part 1 of this story found HERE
As I wrote yesterday, the story of William Page is tragic and infuriating. The official story of a young black man assaulting a farmer’s daughter is almost cliché when it comes to lynchings in the south during this time. Whether or not anybody actually believe the details of these stories could be debated, but I suspect everyone involved knew to some degree that the story was falsified and merely an excuse to terrorize the people of color and maintain the system of oppression that had been cracking over the years.
I am reminded of a story in the first chapter of Life is So Good, the memoir by George Dawson, a 101 year old man who learned to read and write at the age of 98. In his story at the beginning of the book, it is Pete — a 17 year old farmhand — who is lynched when local girl Betty Jo finds herself pregnant and unmarried. Betty Jo was put in an unfortunate position for the time period and needed to lay the blame somewhere. Pete just happened to be there. Accusing him of rape, Pete was taken prisoner by a gang of angry white men and before the day was out he was left hanging in a tree as a warning to the rest of the black community in Marshall, Texas.
About six months after the lynching, Betty Jo had her baby. It was a boy, a little white boy. No one said nothing. I guess by then most folks, white folks anyway, had all forgotten. I didn’t forget.
Today I am adding more to the story of William Page as I find it. I hope to find a conclusion but can offer no promises.
William Page’s lynching took place on August 15, 1917. At the time it was considered to be justice being served and a punishment fitting for the crime.
(I should note here that in my previous posting, I indicated that the Governor of Virginia did not undertake an investigation into the lynching, however that appears now to not be the case as I will explain later.)
The sources I have found with the most information are The Richmond Times-Dispatch and The Richmond Planet. The Planet is unique in that it was at the time a colored newspaper that was printed from 1882-1938. It was founded by former slaves and served as a voice against racial violence and was one of the South’s most forceful black voices before merging with the Afro-American in 1929. The Planet is where we find the story told by the authorities questioned.
In an opinion piece found in the Planet on August 25, 1917 — one week after the murder — half a column is dedicated to story under the heading “Long Record Broken”. The unfortunate record referred to is the state record of going 18 years without a lynching.
The editor, John Mitchell Jr. had this to say:
We have read the reports of the affair and we cannot understand how William Page could have been guilty of attempted criminal assault unless he was demented. To outrage a woman with another yelling female in the vicinity is well-nigh an impossibility and yet this is what is alleged to have been done.
The laws of Virginia are so framed now that an attempted assault is punishable with death. Colored people of Virginia are practically unanimous in their opposition to the amalgamation of the races. Still, white men here in many instances insist upon cohabitation with the lower type of colored women.
The whole truth about this Page affair has not boon told. Certain it is that a man is crazy, be he black or white, who would attempt to criminally assault one female in the presence of the other, while both are violently protesting against the outrage.
The Planet interestingly does not seem to be denying that a “confrontation” occurred between Miss Truitt and William Page, but rather seems to be insinuating that the interaction was perhaps a consensual affair which was discovered afterwards. Mitchell continues:
Colored folk know that the rapist is as dangerous to colored folks as the to white ones and they will serve on a jury to land him in an electric chair as quickly as white men would do the same thing, but they refuse to believe that a sane colored man would be foolish enough to be guilty of the crime with which Page was charged under such conditions as are alleged to have existed at the time that he was charged with attempting to commit the most grievous crime known to criminal jurisprudence.
The matter should be probed to the bottom and the men, who committed the murder in executing him should be made to feel the full effect of the law. Lynch-law must go!
I find this argument to be quite fascinating. The Planet is arguing that a black man would need to be insane to assault a white woman against her will and since he was not, the encounter must have not have been rape. I am not sure that I agree with the reasoning, but I have drawn the same conclusion nonetheless. A simple google search will show that rape was often a justification for a lynching and in many cases, no supporting evidence was provided before or after the event. It appears that William Page may have been, and likely was, another tragic case of a society unwilling to accept racial integration.
At the end of my post yesterday, I mentioned that there was no followup on the lynching after the fact. Today I have found a few more details with regard to the aftermath.
On September 30, 1917, a month and a half after the lynching, the Richmond Times-Dispatch published a short report of the reaction within the African-American community. The article titled “Indication of Trouble From Heathsville Negroes” is included in its entirety below.
HEATHSVILLE, VA. September 29..The relations between the whites and blacks in this section, heretofore pleasant and friendly, are beginning to assume a serious aspect.
At the time of the recent lynching near Lillian, the colored people were thought to have taken it quietly and entirely without resentment, some of them openly declaring that Page got no more than he deserved. His wife and friends refused the body and took no part in Its burial. But shortly after it was found that view was erroneous.
It has been discovered that many secret meetings have been held, and that a prominent citizen and landowner who farms extensively, has been boycotted by the race, every negro refusing to work for him at any price or under any condition, believing they had found he was one of the lynchers. It was learned also that those who might have been prevailed upon to work for him had been intimidated. They were threatened with a beating to the finish if they gave him any assistance.
An altogether new and different spirit is being manifested among the colored people now. Wages have doubled and negro help can scarcely be gotten at any price. Because of this many crops are suffering in the gathering.
Many accuse German spies as being at the bottom of the trouble, as they are known to have had emissaries in the neighborhood.
Again, the blame has been laid at the feet of the black community. How dare they question the white authority and look suspiciously towards those responsible for the murder of one of their friends and family! They are to blame for the tension in the area according to this report. Them and “German spies” that is. Never the white, native community.
The report about the family refusing to take the body was originally reported in an article a week earlier immediately preceding the blurb:
GOVERNOR TAKES STEPS TO INVESTIGATE LYNCHING
Although Governor Stuart has received no official report of the lynching In Northumberland County, he has already taken steps to investigate the matter. It Is probable that prosecutions will follow the Investigation.
I have thus far been unable to find any additional stories about this “investigation”.
Hopefully more to follow...