Freestone County, Texas History & News of 1922 Lynchings & Race War Sacramento Daily Union, 3 June 1922 issue Race War Is Raging In Texas - One White Man Killed and Several Reported Seriously Hurt. - FIGHT STARTS OVER ASSAULT UPON GIRL - Hundreds Marching on Negroes Bent on Wholesale Slaughter MEXIA, Tex., June 3 (by the Associated Press). The situation in Freestone county, following shooting of two negroes yesterday in a gun fight with officers and subsequent reports of possible race riots were so quiet early this morning that peace officers from Mexia returned to their homes. H. J. Fuller, a deputy sheriff, said there were armed white men on the streets at Kirvin, but few negroes to be seen. The Freestone county authorities were reported as confident they could control the situation. FORT WORTH, Tex., June 3.—A mob of white persons, estimated at between 750 and 1000 left Kirvin late last night for Simsboro, four miles south of the latter town, determined to burn the residences of the negroes and shoot the occupants as they come out of their homes, a long distance message to the Ft. Worth Record from Kirvin, stated this morning. FORT WORTH, Tex.. June 3.—Jack Marshall, chief dispatcher at the Texas and Pacific railway station here, said that a message sent over the Texas and Pacific wires stated a mob of 400 whites from towns surrounding Kirvin, where a race riot was reported last night, were hurrying to a farm house south of Kirvin, armed with machine guns. Marshall said the message was sent to Grand Prairie and the operator there relayed the dispatch to stations along the Western Texas and Pacific line. TWO NEGROES KILLED. TEAGUE, Tex., June 2.—Excitement here, at Kirvin, and in Freestone county, following reports of a threatened race riot late today had died at 11:30 o’clock tonight, so far as reports at Teague indicated. Two negroes, Allie and Roy Gibson, are dead as a result of the trouble. They were killed when officers arrested Roy Gibson, and were fired on as they left the house where he was arrested. Those who fired at the officers fled. Reports quickly spread that 60 or 70 negroes heavily armed had barricaded themselves in a house on the Powell farm. 4 1/2 miles from Kirvin. Late tonight the negroes could not be found, it was said here. The feeling in Freestone county has been more or less tense (Continued on Page Six) RACE WAR IN TEXAS (Continued from Page One) for several weeks. Following' the murder of a 17-year-old girl, three negroes were burned to death, one hanged, and another has disappeared. HOUSTON, Tex., June 2 - Corsicana and Wortham report that advices of the race riot at Kirvin have been received and that several thousand men heavily armed are rushing to the scene. MEXIA, Tex., June 2. — One white man was reported killed, and two others seriously wounded by negroes at the John King farm, two and one-half miles southeast of Kirvin this afternoon. The white men are reported to be relatives of Miss Eula Owsley, following whose killing recently three negroes were burned at Kirvin and another hanged. CORSICANA. Tex., June 2. — Between seventy-five and 100 armed negroes are reported lined up about three miles southeast of Kirvin, nineteen miles southeast or Corsicana. All of the citizens of Streetrnan, eight miles north of Kirvin, with the exception of a few left on guard, the report said, have responded to calls for help. A Corsicana hardware store received an order from Kirvin late this afternoon for all the arms and ammunition in stock to be delivered at once. WHITE MAN KILLED. WACO, Texas, June 2. — One white man has been killed and three others mortally wounded in trouble between negroes and whites, two and a half miles south of Kirvin. according to a telephone message to the News-Tribune from the Mexia Evening News. Four negroes were lynched there recently and a fifth disappeared following the murder of a 17-year-old white girl. Mexia officers, said the report, are being rushed to aid the sheriff of Freestone county. Another report considered authentic, is that five negroes have been killed. The trouble, according to reports, began as a result of a flogging given a negro in the vicinity Thursday night. Details of the flogging have not been received.