The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 5, 1927, Page 6

The Escape of Anderson Hixon ''T was midnight in Red City; a sultry, suffocat- ing midsummer midnight. A black night, in which the sand roads, pine tracts and gray, barren fields were swallowed up. Occasionally a mutter- ing of distinct thunder ominously broke the stillness. Yrom a thicket came the musical hum of insects. The odor of cape jasmine was' rich upon the air. Delsie Hixon leaned ffom her window to get a freer breath, her heavy body palpitated with the heat. Mosquitoes swarmed in and out and settled upon her. She heeded them not. She was talking to herself in a low, musical voice. “I’se tole” she said, that my boy mus’ leave Red City, I’se tole that my Anderson, my .baby, mus’ go away or he'll be killed! T’se tole that my Anderson, my baby, mus’ leave his father an’ mother an’ go. away or he'll be lynched! I’se tole that he mus’ go away or he'll have toe die! I’se tole he mus’ go away from Red City and never come back no mo!’ But I, his mother, I remembers hearin’ the voice of that Ceurt. I, re- members hearin’ the voice of that Court say, “Not guilty! Not guilty! Anderson Hixon of the crime accused. An’ I remembers how I cried when I heard that voice of the Court. How I laughed fo’ joy when I heard the voice of that Court a-sayin’ ‘Not Guilty!’ An’ I remembers how glad was my heart when my boy walked out of that Court, free. “An’ now I’se tole that he mus’ go away; I’se tole that the citizens of Red City demands my An- ~ derson’s goin’ away! They say he can’t live among them no mo’.” Delsie folded her arms across her broad bosom and leaned farther out on the window sill. She continued to talk in a low musical voice. “But, I, his mother say that the Law have pro- nounced my Anderson, free! The court have pro- nounced him ‘Not Guilty!’ an’ J, his mother say he shall not go away but he shall live whar he chooses an’ that’s right shere at home.” Delsie paused and drew back from the window. Suddenly a red snake leaped from the threaten- ing clouds and writhed across their blackness; a long, muffled roar followed. Still, the mosquitoes sang in the thicket. Delsie again rested her broad bosom on the sill and went on in her low, musical voice. “I remem- bers Slavery Days. I remembers when I war a very lil chile an’ lived with my mother on the plantation. TI doan remembers no father, I expects that my massa war my father. I remembers the whippin’s the black folks had, I remembers the death blows the runaways got, an’ the long hunts after them that war hid in the swamps. I can see the dogs a-runnin’ hard with their red tongues hangin’ out of their mouths, an’ their lank sides a heavin’; I can hear their long, deep -bay, an’ their snapin’ an’ snarlin’ when they had foun’ the po’ negro. I sees toe-night the slave what runs past my mother’s cabin, jess a-stoppin long nuff to get a drink of water, while my mother steps outside into his tracks to thro’ off the dogs. That slave man a-bearin his lil brother across his breast, all bleedin’ ana-dyin’! ' can see all this now, an’ the dogs, the bloodhounds comin’ on faster and faster. “T knows of the awfulness of the Slavery days, my mother tells me all, of the degradation, the unrest, the rebellious feelin’s that made a runaway shoot hisself rather than toe be taken back. Then the prayers our peoples prays toe God, an’ how he seemed toe have no mercy. The lies we had toe tell toe ’scape the lash, an’ the stealin’s we had toe do toe keep from starvin’ when it might have been better toe have starved!” Delsie stopped. Another fiery snake leaped from the clouds, another pro- longed roar broke the stillness! Delsie thrust her hand out into the night; there was no rain upon it. She went on; I remembers the day when that word came that made free men and women, and free, lil chillen of the black slaves. I remembers that day well, how them mens and womens an’ lil’ chillins war a-crowdin’ roun’ each other a cryin’ fo’ joy, an’ a shoutin’ ‘We’s free! we’s free! Glory, glory! We’s free! We's free! An’ I remembers seein’ the masses a-scowlin’ black, an’ how they goes out an’ shoots themself’s a cussin’ mad, like the cowards they war. Then mo miseries come after that free word, an’ still mo’; the black peoples atryin’ to get toe the North, womin’ an’ lil chil-lins sufferin’ as if God had forgotten them. Then better days begin to come, they say up north that the blackman mus’ have the right to vote fo’ things, toe say what he wants at the ballot-box, I remembers my husband a-votin fo’ the first time just how he feared fo’ hisself! How the white folks laughed when the black folks voted, an’ how those votes did not count fo’ much. “Then, long while after those “free” days, my An- derson boy came to Hixon an’ me. We’s happy fo’ a while, but it seems that we’s not so free as we thot we war. But, I said if Anderson can go to school his mother will work and wash fo’ the rich, white ladies an’ pay fo my boy’s schoolin’. Such a handsome boy, my Anderson, a-favorin’ his father. An’ I remembers how the white boys laughed at derson goin’ to school, how they called him a gger’ puttin’ on airs, how them white boys set on Anderson an’ beat him, beat him up hard “til nderson strack back at one of them, and I remem- rs, it war that white boy, that said he would see my Anderson war lynched some day, he hated my Anderson ‘cause Anderson war defendin’ hisself ayainst the white boys’ blows and beatin’s. Nobody took my boy’s part but the colored folks, and even they didn’t dare to show their best feclin’s, One day came when my boy war arfested fo’ makin’ love, they said, toe a white girl! How I laughed at that, my boy Anderson, makin’ love, him only fifteen year. But the officers came an’ took him, fo’ they said that he had broke the law. The white girl swore agains him, an’ the boy that said he’d see my boy lynched some day, swore toe, but thar war them that knew mo an’ they tole thar story an’ that story proved my boy innocent fo’ he was not there whar the white girl said he war; they showed what they ealled an alibi. “Fo’ three days that Court sat a’tryin’ te prove my boy guilty, but the evidence war with my boy, an’ the Court had toe let him go free! ‘Not guilty,’ said that Court on that third day. “All the colored peoples believed it, and, some of the white folks believed it. “I believed it befo’ the Court said so, fo’ I believed in my boy!” Delsie stopped. Was there not a murmur of voices down the road? She brushed the mosquitoes from her arms and listened. From the bed came the heavy breathing of her husband; across the fields eame the plaint of a “mourning dove.” “Some peo- ples goin’ home from meetin,’” seid she reassur- ingly. Delsie sniffed the air ecstatically. “The jas- mine am pow-ful toe night.” Again came the mur- mur of voices louder than before, and still louder, until, Belsie heard oaths and loud laughter. She heard an oath close at hand from a thick voice, and she heard the blow of an axe. Delsie sprang from the window to the bedside of her sleep- ing husband. “Hixon,” she cried, “Hixon, 1 Awake! thars enemies at the do’.” Hixon turned heavily in his bed, muttering that Tan : £g ft was the thunder that she ment the black night lifted; a the heavens, and in the lurid li group of men fumbling at the came the blow of an axe, foll blow. Hixon sprang from his some 2 i ze i ; 3 > ae 173 egy 73 By ELLEN WETHERELL clothes, crying, “Who ar yo’ an’ what doe yo’ want?" “We want to see Anderson at the door,” came the reply. “Anderson is sleepin’,” said his father. me yo’ business with him!” “To hell with his sleeping; it’s Anderson we'll see or————”” Delsie threw herself before the bedside of her boy who was awake and trembling. “Save our chile, Papa!” she cried, “save our chile, papa!” “Doan open the do’ but shoot! Shoot! Hixon grasped his rifle, he thrust it through the open window into the darkness and called out: “] knows yo’ an’ what yo’s wants, an’ I say in_ the name of the law go away or Ill shoot!” : Instantly came another blow from the axe on the door, then a noise of splintering wood. As the door fell Hixon’s rifie blazed. A sharp ery came up from the yard, a’ coarse oath followed, then a medley of oaths, a smothered groam arose to Del- sie’s ears. Again the black night lifted and by the light of the blazing sky Delsie caught sight of a group of men going slowly through the gate car- trying something very heavy between them. “Fells not only him but you all, next time!” Delsie read the lines in a trembing voice to her husband, Hixon turned to her, saying, “Delsie you have saved our boy this time from being lynched.” As Hixon spoke he pointed to a large coil of new rope left before the door. “Delsie we are not free peo- ples! We hve toe get free! What will you do when these peoples come again?” Delsie smiled as one assured of themselves and their righteous acts; “Papa,” she said, “we'll defend Andeftson in the name of the law!” ‘