Chief Askew's Diary: March 14, 1930

Whiskey runners have bad luck; report on prison camp and farm given

“A couple of whiskey runners had bad luck about 11:30 last night,” Chief Askew wrote in his diary. They ran off an overhead bridge on Lagrange Road.

“A party picked up the two men, who were hurt pretty bad and carried them to Atlanta,” he wrote. The car, a 1929 two-door Ford, “was torn up pretty bad.” He learned later that the car had been bought a couple of days before by an Atlanta man and reported stolen shortly afterward.

Today’s weekly edition of the Newnan Herald carried a report of the Coweta County Grand Jury’s findings in investigations of the county prison camp and farm. Every institution in Jim Crow Georgia was segregated, including these. Paid subscribers can read on.

The Library of Congress photo shows prisoners at a work camp in Greene County, Georgia in 1941. The man playing the guitar is identified as Buddy Moss.