HISTORY OF THE MEDIA AREA BRANCH

The Media Area Branch History

On Wednesday evening, September 26, 1923, an 18-year-old white woman told the Media police she had been beaten and knocked unconscious by a black man. By nightfall, groups of white men, some on horseback and others using bloodhounds, were combing the countryside.

By daybreak, the home of nearly every black family in Media and Lima had been searched. All night the whites were forcing their way into homes of black families, especially out in Lima. By the weekend, heavily armed groups of white men and black men “formed on the streets of the borough talking in whispers “according to the Chester Times. “The police learned that both white and colored people have virtually purchased all the ammunition” in town.

A cross was burned on Olive Street in a neighborhood where many of Media’s black families lived. Some in the posse said they would lynch the attacker if they caught him. On Saturday,1923, the Chester Times reported that another cross was blazing at the front of Baker Street in Media. At the base of the cross, Ku Klux Klan literature was strewn.
While with mobs and vigilante groups roamed the streets, Media’s black leaders decided something had to be done before matters became worse. No black man was above suspicion. Media policemen, Delaware County detectives and sheriff’s deputies, even whites without any legal authority, interrogated black farmhands and black men working the road crews.

A week later a student, Emmet Davis at the Elwyn School for children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities and behavioral health challenges – confessed to the crime.

In 1923, black leaders in Media were so alarmed that they organized a Colored Protection Society. Percy O. Batipps Sr. said , “It is time to organize. We can’t do anything worthwhile unless we stick together”.

There were hurried meetings at the Batipps home: the Rev. J.L. Link, Pastor of Campbell A.M.E. church; the Rev. H.T. Hyder, Pastor of Trinity U.A.M.E. Church; Edwin H. Hackley, playwright; Robert Fields; George E. Somerville; Ralph Anderson.

Batipps Sr., Fields and Somerville went to the police. They talked to families in Lima. They confirmed the rumors that white vigilantes had broken into and searched the homes of black families. Whatever records there were of those early meetings have been lost.

In July 1924, the Colored Protection Society applied for a charter to become a branch of the NAACP and the national board of directors unanimously approved the charter of the NAACP Media Branch.
Batipps Sr. and Moat were principal founders of the Media branch. Batipps was the branch’s first secretary and later president. Moat for many years was chairman of the branch’s board of directors.

This attack was front page news in the Chester Times on September 27, 1923., “High School Girl Seized by Negro”. It would be hard for many today to imagine the appeals to bigotry that newspapers routinely used in reporting the news.

During the early years of the Branch, it was readily recognized by those who were responsible for the success of the organization that the lack of training and experience was a definite handicap to the prosecution of the Branch work. It was decided to enlist the help of some outstanding personalities who were equipped to give the help which was needed.

Among those who responded were Arthur Faucett, Educator; G. Edward Dickerson, advisor on legal technicalities; The Honorable Samuel Hart, Pennsylvania Assemblyman; Edward Henry, Philadelphia’s first Black Magistrate; William Pickens, NAACP Field Secretary; Dr. Leslie P. Hill President, Cheyney Training School for Teachers; J. Passmore Elkington; Walter White; Roy Wilkins; Thurgood Marshall; Gloster Current spoke on the various aspects of the work of the Association; E. Leroy Van Roden; Rev. J. Link; Rev. H.T. Ryder; Milo Manley, a Director of the original FEPC; and Mrs. Dorothy Biddle James.

So prevalent was that kind of sensational and racist journalism that in 1923 national leaders of the NAACP denounced “the use of the word Negro in connection with crime in newspaper headlines giving the malignantly false impression that the Negro is more prone to commit crime than any other race and especially the lie that the Negro is by nature a rapist”.

The girl, Mildred Mosser, never saw the attackers face, the Chester Times reported, but “she recalls seeing his hands and says the fiend was colored.”

Two days after the attack, police and detectives rounded up five suspects. When one suspect was brought in, police had to push back an angry crowd that threaten to seize the prisoner and kill him on the spot.

After Emmett Davis, who admitted to the attack was tried in the case, racial tensions eased. Media had avoided becoming one of dozens of small towns in which blacks often falsely accused of crimes were lynched before they had even the semblance of a trial.

1981 – Delaware County Branches of NAACP established members included Chester, Media and Darby.

References
Philadelphia Inquirer Chester Times
Philadelphia Tribune Library of Congress

Researchers
Michelle Todd
Carolyn Toatley
Akilah Evans Pigford
Omar Pigford
Cynthia Ann Jetter

Past Presidents

Varma Mitchell
James Mason
Joan Duvall-Flynn
Enormel Clark
John F. Edwards
Grant Freeman
Clifford I. Moat, Sr.
Rev. Linwood Parson
Dr. Wilma Mitchell
Michael Motley
J. Fred Baxter
Robert Fields
Edgar Ford
William Goolsby
Dorothy P. Moat
Dr. Marshall Vaughters
Dr. Cecelia Evans
Rev. Edward E. Battle