Pelham, Ga., May 22—Mitchell county authorities today are conducting a vigorous investigation of the flogging early Sunday of Rev. B.C. Temples, a Holiness preacher, who for several weeks has been conducting meetings in a tent eight miles west of this place.
About an hour before sunrise, the preacher was awakened by masked men who had surrounded his tent and commanded to arise and dress. He was conducted some distance away, where he was forced to lay face downward across a long and given a severe beating. When he began to cry out in prayer, pistols were pointed at him and he was warned not to make any further noise, under threat of instant death.
After he had been beaten until his entire back, from the shoulders down, was raw and bleeding, he was tied in a standing position against a tree, thoroughly gagged, and left in this position. Shortly after daylight he managed to work himself loose from his bonds and made his way in an almost exhausted condition to a house some distance away.
The Rev. Mr. Temples is a cripple. Despite his suffering, he conducted three services in his tent after the beating. Today he left with his wife for an unknown destination.
This was the second outrage of the kind to be perpetrated in the same neighborhood. Several weeks ago the Rev. D.A. Waters, also a Holiness preacher, with his family was forced to leave the community by masked men who fired guns over their heads as they drove away in haste.
From the front page of The Goldsboro News, Tuesday morning, May 23, 1922
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