University of Virginia Library

Stepin Fetchit's Son
Kills 4, Wounds 17

from Wire Dispatches

Stepin Fetchit's son, Don
Lambright killed four and wounded
17 recently because he was a victim
of racial discrimination, his relatives
said yesterday.

An uncle said Mr. Lambright,
31-year old son of the Negro actor
of the 30's had been diagnosed by a
psychiatrist a year ago as suffering
from violent or suicidal tendencies,
but had refused treatment.

In Cleveland, his mother, Mrs.
Winifred Lee, declared her son was
a "victim of the racism that is
abroad in this land."

"He found it impossible to
reconcile himself to the fact that he
could not reach employment
commensurate to his abilities," she
said. Mr. Lambright has recently
worked for the Ohio State
Employment office but quit to
return to school at Lincoln
University in Oxford, Pa.

During his hour-long rampage
on the Pennsylvania Turnpike
Saturday Mr. Lambright killed two
passing motorists with his battery
of rifles. Then one mile east of
Harrisburg, he pulled to the side of
the road, shot his wife to death and
then took his own life.

Mr. Lambright's uncle
continued to say that he "slept
with a rifle because he thought 'he
needed protection from the whites.'
He felt white people were going to
kill him."

The uncle, Howard Johnson, a
sociologist in the New York City
antipoverty program said that his
nephew was a member of the
Republic of New Africa, a black
separatist organization recently
involved in a Detroit shooting
which cost a policeman's life. "But
that was not a major part of his
concern."

Mr. Lambright had worked with
black groups ranging from militant
to conservative and tried to act as a
"unifying force," Mr. Johnson said.

Lambright's mother, Mrs. Lee
who has married a third time, called
the shooting "a protest against the
establishment."