James P. Cannon

Demands Truman Act
Against Lynch Murders

(2 August 1946)


Published: The Militant, Vol. 10 No. 32, 10 August 1946, p. 1.
Source: PDF supplied by the Riazanov Library Project.
Transcription/Mark-up: Einde O’Callaghan for the Marxists’ Internet Archive.
Public Domain: This work is in the under the Creative Commons Common Deed. You can freely copy, distribute and display this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit the Marxists’ Internet Archive/Encyclopedia of Trotskyism On-Line as your source, include the url to this work, and note any of the transcribers, editors, translators, proofreaders etc. above.


James P. Cannon, National Secretary of the Socialist Workers Party, on August 2 sent President Truman the following telegram:

The Federal Government must ferret out and prosecute to the full extent of the law the lynchers of the four Negroes in Georgia and end the reign of terror against the Negro people.

The Federal Government must prosecute Bilbo, Talmadge, Rankin, Eastland and the other officials, all prominent members of your political party, who have instigated these lynchings from high office.

We further demand that you reconvene Congress for the express purpose of enacting effective anti-lynching legislation.

Your Administration will go down in history as the accomplice of the Ku Klux Klan and other fascist gangs unless you put an end to the government’s policy of whitewash investigations and buckpassing.


Last updated on 25 June 2021