RACES: Tennessee Justice

Rape was the charge against Curley Wright, Negro, when he faced a judge and jury in circuit court at Centerville, Tenn., last week. He was glad when 100 National Guardsmen arrived to cow a vengeful mob that threatened to lynch him. Complainant against him was Mrs. Zora Johnson Lynn, 55, weak-minded widow. Her account of the attack was lurid. Her two granddaughters, posing as eyewitnesses, embellished the tale by telling how Wright had flourished pistols, one in each hand.

Defense attorneys soon proved that the two younger women were lying, that they were out gadding with men the night of the alleged crime. Mrs. Lynn admitted she had perjured herself.

Shocked at the falsehoods, Robert Brown and Conner Bates, assistant prosecutors, withdrew from the case, announced their belief that Wright, innocent, had been “framed.” Judge J. C. Hobbs let the case go to the jury, warned them against a death penalty verdict. The jury found Wright guilty, fixed punishment at ten years’ imprisonment.

Away from the court house, away from where mobs gather, the jurymen explained they knew Wright was innocent. They said they had voted to convict him so that he could be taken to Nashville for “safekeeping” until lynch talk died down.