Kansas Blacks Fight Off Attackers

Black Buzz News Service
Black Chronicle Archives
February 10, 2010
Coffeyville, Kansas

COFFEYVILLE, Kan., December 10, 1927- In March, 1927, Texas Negroes won a court victory over the "White Primary."
The same month, Negroes in Coffeyville, Kansas won a different kind of victory. They successfully defended their section of the city from invasion by a white mob.
The whites had threatened to burn down the Negro section when their attempt to lynch a Negro had failed. The Negro Curtis Smith, was suspected of having attacked two white girls. He was being held at the City Hall jail by police, who refused to surrender him. Tear gas was used to drive the whites away, but not before they broke every window in City Hall.
Having been denied their lynch victim and angered by the use of gas, the mob turned on the Negro section for revenge.
The colored population was awaiting the attack. Armed with rifles, pistols and bayonets, they marched in military formation to meet the enemy. Opening fire from previously dug trenches, the Negroes wounded two and drove off a mob of 1,500 armed whites.
Troop B, Kansas National Guard Unit, soon arrived to restore order. The mob returned, however after breaking into hardware stores for more guns and ammunition.
Fighting continued throughout the day. Major E.T. Patterson of the Kansas Guard declared the City of Coffeyville under military rule and imposed a nine p.m. curfew.
Curtis Smith, the mob's intended lynch victim, was freed after the girls were unable to identify him.
During the military occupation, several Negro leaders protested against the military's search procedures. Some Negroes, they said had been stopped and searched for weapons as many as ten times.
After the first two days of fighting, peace was restored. The Negro section was still intact;
the colored population of Coffeyville, Kansas had served notice that their rights cannot be ignored.

Blogger Black Buzz says the above type of incidents are still occurring throughout the good old USA. Innocent Negro citizens are still being brutalized by racists cops, white mobs and individuals; people of color are still being discriminated against in all the systems of Employment, Housing, Home Loans, New Home Financing, and Home Refinancing, Health Care Coverage, Education, Residential Segregation, Credit Bureau Ratings, Immigration Status/Citizenship, and Places Open to the Public.

I strongly urge all citizens to obtain a copy of the Southern Poverty Law Center Intelligence Report for 2009, to become better informed citizens on the need to combat all forms of hatred at www.intelligencereport.org
or call 334-956-8486