Another instance when authority oversteps its bounds. Road foreman and guard at the prison camp near Rocky Mount flogged a negro convict until he died. Not satisfied with a good whipping, these officers devised something more brutal to enforce their commands. It was asserted that the negro was severely beaten with a stick and a heavy whip, but prostrate form heavily shackled, was hitched to a pair of mules and dragged for about 75 yards. The negro died in about 30 minutes after the whipping. The two men who perpetrated the outrage were placed in jail. This is the second instance of officers taking too much authority. In one instance the victim of an impulsive pistol shot came from a prominent family, the other only a negro convict. The law should be no respecter of persons. Officials who overstep their authority in both cases should not be allowed to go unpunished.
From the Editorial page of The Smithfield Herald, Tuesday, June 9, 1925
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073982/1925-06-09/ed-1/seq-4/#words=JUNE+9%2C+1925
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