Troubled Ground: A Tale of Murder, Lynching, and Reckoning in the New South

4. Presumed Guilt

4 Presumed Guilt “Judging from some letters that I have received from the colored people throughout the length and breadth of the state,” Robert Glenn joked, “I expect a great many of you came out here today, expecting to see a man with horns on.” The occasion for such self-deprecating banter was the commencement ceremony of the Agricultural and Mechanical College for the Colored Race, where the newly elected governor had been invited to address the graduating class on April 27, 1905. For the most part, the chief executive’s talk was unremarkable , aside from the unusual sight of a Democratic high official appearing before a gathering of black North Carolinians. Glenn offered the typical mix of patronizing criticism and exhortation, encouraging his Greensboro audience to earn the respect of whites by working hard, obeying the law, and leading morally exemplary lives. He stressed the need for blacks to stay in the South among whites who supposedly understood them and valued their labor. In an ode to both his antebellum upbringing and southern racial mythologies, the governor praised the “faithful” slaves of his youth and encouraged his listeners to trust the judgment of whites, whom he believed were willing to deal justly with African Americans. If no one in the audience discerned horns on Glenn’s hairless head, he probably allayed few fears regarding the racial tenor of his agenda as governor. Even his comments on lynching, while certainly welcomed, were hardly new for white southern elites who had lamented mob killings but had done little to prevent them. A talented orator, Glenn was rhapsodic in his denunciation of lynching. “There is not a single humble white man or colored man who is not entitled to be tried according to the laws of our land,” he asserted, “and I would bring every power in my possession, all the military force, to save him from the foul i-xx_1-228_Cleg.indd 80 9/15/10 11:36:38 AM Presumed Guilt 81 clutches of a mob, that he might have a fair trial in the courts of justice.” The governor further promised that he would intervene in the proceedings of any lynch mob that he personally encountered, bringing to bear “my prayers and all the eloquence that God has given me, and strong arm” in an effort to prevent an extralegal killing. In exchange for his commitment, Glenn counseled that both blacks and whites would have to condemn “the enormous crimes that nine times out of ten cause lynching.” In his estimate, only a cessation of such offenses would end mob rule. Although he did not name the crimes, this act of omission, no doubt in consideration of the polite occasion, strongly implied that he was referring specifically to rape and murder. As his predecessor had four years earlier, the governor downplayed the state’s ability to halt lynchings, warning that “all the power of humanity” could not quench the passions of the mob when certain crimes were committed. If Glenn sounded like Charles Aycock circa 1901, the resemblance was understandable. The two men had traveled similar paths to the governor’s mansion, and each had been indispensible to the political fortunes of the other.1 Robert Broadnax Glenn was born in Yadkin County in 1854 but raised in Rockingham County. His father, Chalmers Glenn, had been a tobacco Salisbury Train Station, ca. 1900 (courtesy of the North Carolina Collection, UNC–Chapel Hill) i-xx_1-228_Cleg.indd 81 9/15/10 11:36:39 AM 82 chapter 4 planter and lawyer before joining the Confederate military, losing his life shortly afterward at the battle of South Mountain in Maryland in 1862. At the age of sixteen, Robert matriculated at Davidson College and later studied a year at the University of Virginia. After a stint in the preparatory program of Judge Richmond Pearson, he began practicing law in Wentworth in 1877. Over the next decade, Glenn prospered as an attorney in Winston-Salem, forming a partnership with William B. Glenn and Clement Manly. His most notable clients were corporate entities, such as the Western Union Telegraph Company and the Southern Railroad, which provided him with early ties to business and industry. As his first political office, Glenn was appointed district solicitor in 1886, filling an unexpired term. He lost a subsequent election for the position against a Republican challenger, but proved to have a sufficient enough appetite for partisan...