MONTGOMERY COUNTY, GA - OBITS Mincey, Shelton S. 1930 ***************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm *********************** This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: Virginia Crilley varcsix@hot.rr.com For much more information see http://www.thefirstmondaytimes.com/4436.html A Memorial Day is held each year in Ailey on the weekend before the 1st Monday in August. Families come together and also do clean up of cemeteries, and reflect on the principles S.S. Mincey stood for. [original article available Clerk's Office of Toombs County, Montgomery County, Brewton-Parker College Library] The Vidalia Advance August 4, 1930 MANY ATTEND RITES FOR SLAIN NEGRO LEADER Mt. Vernon, GA Aug 4 Hundreds of Negroes from all parts of Georgia assembled at Ailey, GA, in this county, Sunday to attend the funeral of S.S. Mincey, 70 year old member of their race who was slain by a hooded gang last Tuesday after being carried from Montgomery county to Toombs county. The service began at 10 o'clock this morning and lasted for several hours. From daylight this morning automobiles filled with Negroes were seen passing along all roads leading to Ailey. All the surrounding counties had big delegations in attendance and the Negro Masonic lodges, the Negro Knights of Pythias and various other orders to which he belonged sent representatives. There was no disorder. After the services were over the Negroes left for their homes as quietly as they had come. Mincey was the Republican leader of this county and had attended a number of national conventions of that party. He had recently decided to devote all his time to lodge work. [Interment at Live Oak Baptist Church Cemetery; Ailey] S.S. MINCEY, AILEY POLITICAL LEADER FATALLY BEATEN Negro Republican Leader of Ailey Dies after Attack by Masked Men Mount Vernon, GA July 29 S.S. Mincey, 70, negro Republican leader in Ailey, Ga., died here this afternoon after reporting he had been kidnapped from his home by a band of masked and robed men last night, carried into Toombs County and beaten. He was found semi-conscious this morning and revived only enough to give a fragmentary account of the attack. A white man who found him brought him home. Mincey told officers one of the demands made by the attackers was that he give up his post as county Republican chairman. Before he died he told of being struck over the head with a rifle before being taken forcibly from his home. Physicians said that blow resulted in concussion of the brain and caused his death. He was not able to name his assailants. Solicitor General M.H. Boyer was with the negro several hours before he died but was able to obtain only meager information. Officers said considerable feeling had been aroused by the case. Besides being active in Republican politics, as county chairman and formerly delegate to a number of national conventions, Mincey recently was elected grand secretary of the Georgia Negro Masons with a salary of $76 a month and an equal allowance for a secretary. No motive has been established for the attack. Officers said they knew of no activity on Mincey's part, political or otherwise, that might have caused it. They said they had learned there were ten or more persons in the band. Officers said they had learned the negro's grandson was knocked down and his wife threatened when they attempted to prevent the kidnapping. The beating, in which most of the skin was lashed off the negro's back, was administered near Grays Landing. He has injuries on his face and head as well as his back. There was no definite verification of a report here that Mincey recently hadn't agreed to a demand that he resign his position as Republican county chairman. Several kidnapping and lashing ____ have come to the attention of officers here in the last few years, but this was the first in several months. Montgomery County Citizens In Mass Meeting at Mt. Vernon Condemn Murder of Mincey Resolutions Deploring Recent Incident with Hope That Guilty Parties Be Brought to Trial Passed. Mount Vernon, GA August 4 Condemning in no uncertain terms the brutal flogging and killing of S.S. Mincey, negro Republican leader, here last week, citizens in mass meeting here this morning passed a resolution deploring the incident and expressing a hope that the guilty persons would be brought to trial. THE FLOGGING Mincey, an aged negro, was dragged from his bed by about a dozen hooded men, taken down the road near Ailey, flogged, beaten over the head with a butt of a rifle and left to die on the roadside. He was later found dying by passing teamsters. His political activities were given as the motive for the killing. Col. L.G. Underwood was chairman of the meeting and the resolution was read by Dr. J.W. Palmer of Ailey. Another resolution endorsing the editorial of the Montgomery Monitor, in which the spirit of mob violence was condemned, was passed. SPEAKERS The speakers at the mass meeting which was held in the superior court room, were J.M.B. McGregor, ex-state senator, who described Mincey as one of the outstanding representatives of his race in Georgia; H.B. Felsom, A.L. Lanier, M.B. Calhoun, Hugh Peterson, local editor; W.A. Peterson, W.M. Lewis, Ben Grace, Wimberly Bryan, Rev. L.S. Barrett, Rev. L.W. Walker, and Solicitor General Boyer. The court room was packed and the gallery was taxed to capacity with negro spectators. THE RESOLUTION "Whereas, in recent years a number of horrible crimes have been committed within the bounds of Montgomery County or upon citizens of this county forcibly taken to an adjoining county by masked bodies of white men; the perpetrators of such despicable and cowardly acts, under cover of darkness and their identity unknown, have gone without apprehension or punishment, to the indignation of an enraged citizenship; and: "Whereas, In the early morning of July 29 this county again suffered an unpardonable shock to civil right and justice, when S.S. Mincey, a colored citizen, was by a masked band of white men dealt a fatal blow in his frame, forcibly taken away and.....