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→Defeat of the Dyer Bill
===Defeat of the Dyer Bill===
===Defeat of the Dyer Bill===
Renewed motivations for the passage of the Dyer Bill followed after the lynching of Oscar Mack in Kissimmee, Florida; Mack, after obtaining a government contract permitting him to deliver mail from the railroad station to the post office, angered local whites particularly as he beat other contenders for the position.<ref name=waldrep,p.76/> An assistant postmaster, foreseeing a violent attack, gave Mack a pistol, which was used in self-defense on July 16 in retaliation against a white supremacist mob firing into his home. Mack shot and killed two aggressors among the mob, intensifying anger among local whites who despised black self-defense.<ref name=waldrep,p.76/>
A government agent involved in Mack's case over the mailing contract, Leon Howe, desperately urged federal protection of Mack against a mob lynching:<ref>"African Americans Confront Lynching," p. 77.</ref>
{{cquote|This case appears to offer an opportunity to obtain Federal jurisdiction, as Mack was a government employee. This agent holds no brief for negroes, but from my brief residence in Florida I am convinced that some federal action should be taken in such cases as these.|||Agent Leon Howe, cir. July 1922}}
Despite Shortridge's enthusiastic leadership of the Dyer Bill's advocates, his parliamentary skills proved unable to overcome that of Democratic opponents Oscar W. Underwood of Alabama and Byron P. "Pat" Harrison of Mississippi,<ref name=greenidge/> who along with Borah successfully hindered the Dyer Bill's passage.
Despite Shortridge's enthusiastic leadership of the Dyer Bill's advocates, his parliamentary skills proved unable to overcome that of Democratic opponents Oscar W. Underwood of Alabama and Byron P. "Pat" Harrison of Mississippi,<ref name=greenidge/> who along with Borah successfully hindered the Dyer Bill's passage.