They Had Their Lynching Frolic, Now Let Them Pay the Piper, 1919

From the editorial page of the Rockingham Post-Dispatch, Feb. 27, 1919. The crowd that gathered outside the jail where the accused was supposedly imprisoned, brought guns. A 14-year-old girl looking out the second story window of her home was shot and killed, as was a fireman who had been given the direction to spray the rioters with water.

Fifteen of the defendants indicted for participation in the riot in Winston on Nov. 17, 1918, when an attempt was made to lynch Russel High, a negro, were convicted in superior court last week at Dobson. Six were sentenced to the Forsyth roads by Judge Long for 14 months each, one for 16 months, four for six years, two for four years, one for three years, and one for two years. It is to be hoped these men will be made to serve their full sentences, but of course they will be pardoned long before their sentences expire. Mob law cannot be too strongly condemned, and when a conviction is finally secured the convicted ones should serve their sentences in full.

These men had their lynching frolic; now let them pay the piper.