The Palestine Race Riot
By Editor
Some time ago we noticed a disturbance which broke out in Palestine, Texas, on July 30. The reports in the daily papers both South and North call it a race war brought about by a Negro's killing a white man who had gone to collect from him a debt which he owed. Later investigation, according to the Southern papers themselves, places the blame wholly upon some hot-headed white people. It is said that the sheriff himself, after full investigation, felt that the Negroes were not to blame for the troubles which occurred, and that those killed were innocent. The board of trade in Palestine, Texas, issued a statement that the whole affair was greatly exaggerated. Some white people had heard that the Negroes had laid a plot to raid the homes of the white people and kill the members,—rumors that were neither confirmed nor disproved,—and to prevent this some ten Negroes were killed. It was a community affair, beginning and ending as such, and was squelched as soon as the officers could take it in hand. The later presence of the state militia was for the sole purpose of keeping order. The blame seemed to have centered about eleven white men who were brought to town and locked up on the charge of murder. We designed to make this statement earlier, but among other matters it has been overlooked.