“Amos,” General yelled at the top of his lungs as he banged on the door. It was after 2:00 a.m. in the morning but he couldn’t go home. Not in the state he was in, not after what he had seen. He hadn’t slept a wink on the train ride back to Buena Vista from Valdosta, and had then run the two miles non-stop to his brother’s home.

The door opened and General almost fell on Amos in his haste to enter. He felt drops of sweat pouring down his face and he knew he had alarmed his brother because Amos’ face was riddled with concern.

“Lord, what’s done happened, General? You hollin’ loud enough to wake the dead.” General gasped for air as Amos led him over to a chair. He didn’t take his eyes off Amos as he went to the water bucket in the kitchen, dipped some out into a glass jar, and brought it back to him.

General drank deeply and sat the glass on the table before speaking. “It’s bad. ‘Bout the worst it could be,” he said, putting his head in his hands and just sitting for the longest time.   

Amos asked shakily, “The family alright?”

“Yeah. Yeah, they all okay. But you best sit down. It’s been a lynching.”

“Gone way from here. Way at?” Amos asked. General heard the panic in Amos voice. That panic questioned how close, and how much danger were their families in?

“Valdosta. A young girl. I was leaving Valdosta on my way back to Buena Vista after checking out them farming jobs I told you ‘bout. I was walkin’ the dirt road that led into town, headin’ to the train station. As I came roun’ a curve in the road, a old black woman ran up to me, hollin’ and cryin’. I tell ya, I could smell trouble, just the way she was carryin’ on. My heart like to froze.

“‘They gone hang Sista. I know they is,’ she said. ‘Chased her off from the sto’ way they say she stole some bread. Sista ain’t stole no bread. She be too scared to do anything ‘roun’ whites. Always scared they gone kill her. And she just ‘bout to have her baby.”

“From where we stood, I could see part of a river and could hear voices low across the road on that side. I knew it was time to take cover in the bushes or somethin’, but the thought of a young girl bein’ hung stopped me and I couldn’t leave. The old lady was crying somethin’ awful and I just couldn’t go ‘way from there with the state she was in.

“‘That’s way they ran her off to?’ I asked, and the woman pointed towards the river.

“I musta’ been thinkin’ crazy ‘cause I started walkin’ over there, like what could I do?”

“‘No, don’t go that way,’ she said. ‘They might can see ya if that be them over there. It’s a patch a trees over yonder on the other side that’s high up. That way we can look down to the river and be hid.’

“Sho’ nuf, as we climbed to the area where the thick trees was the voices was louder. Lord, Amos, I never felt so helpless in my life. I couldn’t do a thing to help her. The girl was layin’ on the ground, still. I couldn’t tell if she was live or dead. There was ‘bout six white men standing over the girl. Then two of ‘em lifted her up while another one took a rope and put it roun’ her neck. When they was done, my God, she hung from the tree. I could see her eyes. They was wide open.

“‘After this, niggas a be scared to come in these parts,’ one man said. ‘They mens and womens.’ Then this same man pulled out a sharp huntin’ knife from his pocket. I couldn’t look no mo’ after that. But I could still hear ‘em talkin’.

“‘Light the fire,’ I heard one of ‘em say. The old woman cried and fell to the ground. We couldn’t leave from there right then. It was too dangerous. I was sick and disgusted at the same time ‘cause I couldn’t do nothing.

“‘Come on. Let’s get out of here,’ one of ‘em said.

“I must a sat there under the tree for I don’t know how long, wonderin’ why we was born. Then when I come to my senses I saw the old lady walkin’ down the embankment and I followed her. What I saw just ‘bout froze my blood. They set her body on fire, but it went out after it just about burnt her legs up. You could see the dead baby, they had cut her stomach open.”

“Jesus,” Amos said, “Lord, Lord, Lord,” and kept shaking his head back and forth. General shed some much-needed tears while Amos prayed for his brother and for the young girl’s family.

****