Steve Green was born in Tennessee in 1862. He has never been to school
a day, and has worked for his living since childhood. He married and
settled in Arkansas, choosing a place where there was good schooling
for his children. What befell him there is told in his own words:
“In 1910 the landlord, Mr. Saddler, raised the rent from $5 an acre
to $9. I and all of the other tenants moved away. Mr. Saddler sent
after me, and said that if I did not work for him I could not work
in Crittenden County. I moved to a place a mile away, but after the
death of my wife started to break up housekeeping. Meantime I hired
out for a day to a neighbor, when Mr. Saddler rode by on his horse.
He said, ‘Green, didn’t I tell you that if you didn’t work on my farm
that there was not room enough in Crittenden County for you and me to
live?’ I said, ‘Yes, sir; you told me so.’ He answered, ‘I meant just
what I said,’ and drew his revolver. I ran, but he shot me in the neck,
left arm and right leg. I kept on running and reached my house, got
my Winchester and shot at him. They say that I killed him. The others
still chased me and I jumped into the river. I stayed in the top of a
tree until midnight. Then I got some cartridges from a colored man and
went to a town some miles away, which took me three nights to walk,
wading in creeks because of the bloodhounds. My friends brought me food
and blankets and I stayed on an island in the Mississippi River three
weeks. Colored friends gave me $32, and I traveled on foot and by rail
to Chicago, arriving August 12. I was betrayed by a colored friend who
told the police. The policeman arrested me, saying that I had stolen
some ties, which I knew nothing about. He took me to the Harrison
street station. For four days they gave me no food or drink. I ate two
boxes of matches trying to kill myself. They kept questioning me about
Arkansas. At last I look sick and they put me in the hospital, where
the doctor told them I was starving, and they gave me something to eat.
Finally Saddler’s nephew came and I was identified, and Sunday night
we left for Arkansas. He said a thousand people were waiting to burn
me. The colored people of Chicago had heard of the story and got out
a writ of habeas corpus. They offered a reward of $100 to the sheriff
who would reach me and telegraphed all along the line to catch me. The
sheriff of Cairo got me just as we were nearing the line. He is the man
who replaced the former sheriff--the one the Governor held responsible
for the mob in that city. I was stopped and sent back to Chicago.”
Steve Green’s friends have engaged lawyers and are fighting his case
for him. The outcome of their efforts to save this unfortunate man will
be recorded in THE CRISIS.