Racism and Civil Rights

In 1974, interviewing a former reporter for The Memphis Commercial Appeal newspaper who told me about a 1922 Florence, South Carolina, story which he could not get out of his heart and mind. He had handed me a typed copy of an interracial love letter. When after reading it, I said how moving it was, he sad-sighed “I haven’t been able to forget words of that letter over fifty years… but Jim, it’s this little photo which with the love letter showed up in ’22 in our newspaper’s mail box!” He handed small photo to me, saying “It was damned note with it which makes it so haunting!” I laid the photo down next to love letter copy, had fear of my tears falling on it!

The cryptic printed note in plain envelope left in newspaper’s mailbox, containing blood-stained love letter and small photo, had the opening line “THE KISS THAT GOT THE C__N KILLED!” Note had gone on to explain photo had been taken by “concerned citizen of Florence,” and when it was shown to them, they had decided a mere beating, castration would not do. The “n____r” must die!

The antiracism editor of the Memphis newspaper had copied the love letter and had reluctantly given the blood-stained original to “good-old-boy” Florence police department, but out of that mistrust had handed over copy of photo, secretly keeping the original.

Sure enough that original blood-stained love letter and copy of “the kiss photo” turned up missing from evidence file at Florence Police Department. The former Memphis reporter told me he had been told about an anti-racism speech I had presented in Kentucky and, being elderly in poor health, had decided to let me have, speak on “the fatal kiss” photo and its sad story!