Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 September 1902 — DIE IN CHURCH PAN [ARTICLE]

DIE IN CHURCH PAN

GREAT DISASTER AT BIRMING HAM, ALABAMA. Woman’s Scream and Cry of Fire Stampede Convention 'of Negro Baptists with Horrible Consequences—Known Dead 78, and 100 More Are Injured. In a wild panic caused by a belief the building was on fire eighty persons, many from distant points, were killed by a stampede in the Shiloh Negro Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., at the close of an address made by Booker T. Washington to the national convention of Baptists, which was there in session. Nearly 100 persons were injured, and it was three hours before all the wounded could be attended to and the dead taken to undertaking establishments. The ambulance service,of the city was utterly incapable of moving the injured without great delays, which in many cases proved fatal. Dozens of dead bodies were arranged in rows on the ground outside the church, while more than a score were laid out on the benches inside. The church is the largest house of worship for negroes in the city, and there were over 2,000 persons in the edifice when the stampede began. Instructions had been issued to allow no more to enter, but the negroes forced their way inside the buildmg and were standing in every aisle; even the entrance to the church was literally packed. Mistake “Fight” for “Fire.” Just as Booker T. Washington concluded his address Judge Ballou, a negro lawyer from Baltimore, engaged in an altercation with another delegate, and it is said a blow was struck. Someone in the choir cried “Fight! Fight!” Mistaking the word “fight” for “fire,” the congregation rose in a body and started for the door. One of the ministers quickly mounted the rostrum and admonished the people to keep quiet. < He repeated the word “quiet” several times and motioned to his hearers to be seated, but the excited congregation mistook the word “quiet” for “fire,” and with redoubled exertions renewed the struggle to reach the door. Men and women crawled over benches and fought their way into the aisles, and those who had fallen were trampled upon, like cattle. The ministers tried again and again to stop the stampede, but no power on earth could stay the struggling, fighting mass of humanity. The screams of women and children added to the horror of the scene, and through mere fright many persons fainted and as they fell to the floor were crushed to death. Entrance a Death Trap. The level of the floor is about fifteen feet from the ground and long steps lead to the sidewalk from the lobby just outside the main auditorium. Brick walls extend on each side of these steps for six or seven feet, and this proved a veritable death trap. Negroes who had reached the top of the steps were pushed violently forward and many fell. Before they could move others fell upon them, and in fifteen minutes there was a struggling, shrieking mass cf men and women and children piled to a height of ten feet. This wall of torture blocked the entrance and the weight of the 1,500 persons remaining in the church was rammed against it. More than twenty persons lying on the steps underneath the heap of bodies died from suffocation. Two white men who were in the rear of the church when the rush began escaped, and, realizing the seriousness of the situation, rushed to a corner near by and turned in a fire alarm. The department came quickly and the arrival of the wagons served to scatter the crowd which had gathered around the front of the church. A squad of police was also hastened to the church, and with the firemen finally succeeded in releasing the negroes from their pinioned positions in the entrance. During the stampede Booker T. Washington and several other prominent negroes were on the stage and were vnwilHng witnesses to the frightful catastrophe. None of those in the choir or in the pulpit were injured in the least.