CENTER FOR CIVIL AND HUMAN RIGHTS: LYNCHING POSTCARDS OF INHUMANITY EXHIBIT: JANUARY, 2011

 

The Disciples of Hatred, in Their Own Words and Images

By BRENT STAPLES

Published: December 22, 2008

Nazi hunters have made an art of exposing war criminals through photographs taken in the death camp era. This strategy would have worked well against Southern lynch-mob killers who posed for the camera while murdering African-Americans in a campaign of terror that persisted into the mid-20th century.

Black American lives were viewed as expendable in the pre-civil rights South. The murderers who hanged, dismembered or burned black victims alive — before crowds of cheering onlookers — knew well that the law would not act against them. These savage rituals were meant to keep the black community on its knees.

The white men and women who flocked to these carnivals of death sometimes brought along young children, who were photographed no more than an arm’s length away from a mutilated corpse. These photos were often turned into grisly postcards that continued to circulate even after Congress made it illegal to mail them.

A particularly vivid lynching postcard depicts the charred and partially dismembered corpse of Jesse Washington, who was burned before a crowd of thousands in Waco, Tex., in 1916.

The card, which appears to have been written by a white spectator to his parents, is signed “your son Joe.” He refers to the horrific murder — in which the victim’s ears, fingers and sexual organs were severed — as the “barbecue we had last night.” He identifies himself in the crowd by placing a mark in ink about his head.

By permitting images like this one to move through the mail at all, the government tacitly endorsed lynching, along with the presumption that African-Americans were less than human. The mailings also aided a propaganda campaign that was intended to terrorize the black population in the nation as a whole, not just in the South.

Joe from Waco is no doubt long dead. But many of the people who attended lynchings as children in the 1930’s and 40’s must be still alive and walking the streets of the principal states of the lynching belt. They include Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas, all of which voted against the first black president.

The nearness of the past was fully evident not long ago in Atlanta, when the collectors James Allen and John Littlefield were trying to mount an exhibition of lynching images that had drawn a huge audience and international attention when shown at the New-York Historical Society’s “Without Sanctuary” exhibition of 2000.

Influential Atlantans equivocated. As a person familiar with the issue told me recently: “There were concerns that people in crowds were still alive. And of course, family members and relatives of those people might come in and have to say, ‘That’s my dad’ or ‘That’s my mom.’ ”

“Without Sanctuary” was shown in Atlanta in 2002 at the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site and drew more than 175,000 people, three times as many as viewed it in New York. But the tension surrounding the exhibition made it seem unlikely that the images and the accompanying documents would find a permanent home in Georgia or any other lynching belt state.

So it came as a surprise earlier this year when the collection was acquired by Atlanta’s Center for Civil and Human Rights, an ambitious cultural and historical institution that has yet to break ground for its building and plans to open in 2011. The center aspires to emulate the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington in method, linking the civil rights movement to national and international issues of the day.

The notion of housing the lynching material in the same institution as, say, Martin Luther King’s sermons and speeches strikes some as jarring. But this is just as it should be. The civil rights movement can only be properly understood in the context of the reign of terror that gripped black Southerners.

The victims of those public hangings and burnings were sometimes accused of crimes. But they were often guilty of nothing more than seeking the right to vote, speaking truth to white power. Black business owners who challenged white supremacy in the marketplace were favorite targets.

The victims were sometimes killed after they had been marched through the black section of town — with a stop at the school for the colored — and fully exploited as a testament to black powerlessness. Lynching, in other words, was a method of social control.

When visitors to the Center for Civil and Human Rights confront these realities, they will know what the civil rights pioneers faced — and what they feared — when they took those first, perilous steps along the path to freedom.

SOURCE

Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson and Isaac McGhie were murdered on June 15, 1920 in Duluth,  Minnesota. The Duluth memorial has been described by its artist as attempting to “reinvest [the victims] with their unique personalities”, to counteract the way the lynchings “depersonalized” them.

Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith, lynched in Marion, Indiana on August 7, 1930. There would have been a third victim—–James Cameron—–if a white onlooker had not spoken out in his defense, and thereby saving his life from the lynch mob.

Laura Nelson.   (The barefoot corpse of Laura Nelson. May 25, 1911, Okemah, Oklahoma.
Gelatin silver print. Real photo postcard. 3 1/2 x 5 1/2″
Etched in the negative:”copyright-1911-g.h.farnum, okemah. okla 2898.” Stamp on reverse, “unmailable.” Photographer: George H. Farnum, 1911.

This is the only known photo of a lynched black woman. Laura was murdered with her 14-year-old son Lawrence, after he was castrated by members of the mob, in Okemah, Oklahoma in 1911. She was raped by members of the mob, before she and her child were brutally murdered.

The lynching of Laura Nelson and her son, several dozen onlookers. May 25, 1911, Okemah, Oklahoma.
Gelatin silver print. Real photo postcard. 5 1/2 x 3 1/2″

Etched in the negative: “1911 copy right, g.h. farnum, okemah. okla\ 2897.”

The lynching of Lawrence W. Nelson, May 25, 1911 in Okemah, Oklahoma. Gelatin silver print. Real photo postcard. 3 1/2 x 5 1/2. Etched in the negative: “copyright-1911-g.h.farnum, okemah. okla 2894.” Photo by George H. Farnum. The image was published in 1911 as a postcard.

Here is a  partial list of known murdered lynch martyrs:

Name	Date	Location	Notes
ALBANO, Angelo	1910	Florida	[Source: “American Lynching”]
ALLEN, Rich	29 June 1905	Watkinsville, Oconee County, Georgia	[Source: “Bloody Injuries” by Professor Wilkes, University of Georgia]
ALLEN, Tom	June 1911	Walton County, Georgia	While returning to Walton County to stand trial for allegedly raping a white woman, a group of men hung Tom from a telegraph pole and shot him. [Source: Fire in a Canebrake]
ANDERSON, Winston	April 1878	Clarkesville, Tennessee	Winston was lynched for attempting rape. [Source: The Daily Constitution , Atlanta, Georgia, 17 Apr 1878]
ARGO, Henry	1930	Chickasha, Oklahoma	[Source: “American Lynching”]
AYCOCK, Lon J.	29 June 1905	Watkinsville, Oconee County, Georgia	[Source: “Bloody Injuries” by Professor Wilkes, University of Georgia]
BAKER, Frazier	22 February 1898	Lake City, South Carolina	–
BAKER, Julia	22 February 1898	Lake City, South Carolina	–
BARKSDALE, Heyward “Monk”	May 1893	Laurens, South Carolina	Supposed crime: attempted rape. [Source: The Atlanta Constitution , Georgia, 11 May 1893]
BAZEMORE, Peter	26 March 1918	Lewiston, North Carolina	Peter allegedly attacked a white woman. [Source: The Crises, “Old Magazine Articles”]
BEST, Walter	23 February 1918	Fairfax, South Carolina	Walter was hanged. He was accused of murder. [Source: The Crises, “Old Magazine Articles”]

BLACK, William	January 1890	Barnwell County, South Carolina	Supposed crime: stealing. [Source: The Atlanta Constitution , Georgia, 12 Jan 1890]
BOYD, General	1913	Walton County, Georgia	General was lynched for allegedly entering a white woman’s room at night. [Source: Fire in a Canebrake]
BROWN, Gene	27 July 1918	Ben Hur, Texas	Gene was hanged for an alleged assault on a white woman. [Source: The Crises, “Old Magazine Articles”]
BUSH, Samuel	June 1893	Decatur, Illinois	Supposed crime: Assault on a white woman. [Source: The Atlanta Constitution , Georgia, 4 June 1893]
BYRD, James Jr.	June 1998	Jasper, Texas	James was chained to the bumper of a truck and dragged to his death.
CABINESS, Bessie	4 June 1918	Huntsville, Walker County, Texas	Sarah and her six children (George, Peter, Cute, Tenola, Thomas, and Bessie) were shot because of an alleged threat made by George Cabiness to A. P. W. Allen. [Source: The Crises, “Old Magazine Articles.” For more information, click here.]
CABINESS, Cute	4 June 1918	Huntsville, Walker County, Texas	Sarah and her six children (George, Peter, Cute, Tenola, Thomas, and Bessie) were shot because of an alleged threat made by George Cabiness to A. P. W. Allen. [Source: The Crises, “Old Magazine Articles.” For more information, click here.]
CABINESS, George	4 June 1918	Huntsville, Walker County, Texas	Sarah and her six children (George, Peter, Cute, Tenola, Thomas, and Bessie) were shot because of an alleged threat made by George Cabiness to A. P. W. Allen. [Source: The Crises, “Old Magazine Articles.” For more information, click here.]
CABINESS, Peter	4 June 1918	Huntsville, Walker County, Texas	Sarah and her six children (George, Peter, Cute, Tenola, Thomas, and Bessie) were shot because of an alleged threat made by George Cabiness to A. P. W. Allen. [Source: The Crises, “Old Magazine Articles.” For more information, click here.]
CABINESS, Sarah	4 June 1918	Huntsville, Walker County, Texas	Sarah and her six children (George, Peter, Cute, Tenola, Thomas, and Bessie) were shot because of an alleged threat made by George Cabiness to A. P. W. Allen. [Source: The Crises, “Old Magazine Articles.” For more information, click here.]

CABINESS, Tenola	4 June 1918	Huntsville, Walker County, Texas	Sarah and her six children (George, Peter, Cute, Tenola, Thomas, and Bessie) were shot because of an alleged threat made by George Cabiness to A. P. W. Allen. [Source: The Crises, “Old Magazine Articles.” For more information, click here.]
CABINESS, Thomas	4 June 1918	Huntsville, Walker County, Texas	Sarah and her six children (George, Peter, Cute, Tenola, Thomas, and Bessie) were shot because of an alleged threat made by George Cabiness to A. P. W. Allen. [Source: The Crises, “Old Magazine Articles.” For more information, click here.]
CALHOUN, John	25 May 1918	Barnesville, Georgia	John was shot for the alleged murder of John A. Willis. [Source: The Crises, “Old Magazine Articles”]
CARROLL, James	April 1879	Frederick, Maryland	The Daily Constitution , Atlanta, Georgia, 22 Apr 1879: “The jury of inquest upon the lynching of the negro, James Carroll, returned a verdict that he was hanged by men unknown to the jury.”
CLARKE, Andrew	21 December 1918	Shubuta, Mississippi	Major Clarke and his brother Andrew, as well as Maggie and Alma House were hanged for the murder of Dr. E. L. Johnston. [Source: The Crises, “Old Magazine Articles”]
CLARKE, Major	21 December 1918	Shubuta, Mississippi	Major and his brother Andrew, as well as Maggie and Alma House were hanged for the murder of Dr. E. L. Johnston. [Source: The Crises, “Old Magazine Articles”]
CLAYTON, Elias	June 1920	Duluth, Minnesota	–
CLAYTON, George	18 June 1918	Mangham, Louisiana	George was hanged for the murder of his employer, Ben Brooks. In a battle with the posse George wounded six men, probably fatally. [Source: The Crises, “Old Magazine Articles”]
COBB, James	23 May 1918	Cordele, Georgia	James was hanged for the alleged murder of Mrs. Roy Simmons. [Source: The Crises, “Old Magazine Articles”]
COSBY, “Bud”	7 February 1918	Fayetteville, Georgia	Bud was hanged for intent to rob and kidnapping. [Source: The Crises, “Old Magazine Articles”]

CRAWFORD, Anthony P.	October 1916	Abbeville, South Carolina	[Source: Men and Violence: Gender, Honor, and Rituals in Modern Europe and America, edited by Pieter Spierenburg]
CZERICH, Warren	3 September 1918	San Pedro, California	Supposed crime: murder. [Source: The Crises, “Old Magazine Articles”]
DANSY, Ed.	February 26, 1918	Willacoochee, Georgia	Mr. Dansy was shot. He had killed two white officers and wounded three others. [Source: The Crises, “Old Magazine Articles”]
DAVIS, Dan	1912	–	[Source: “American Lynching”]
DEVERT, Thomas	20 May 1918	Erwin, Tennessee	Thomas was shot and burned for the alleged murder of a white girl. [Source: The Crises, “Old Magazine Articles”]
DUKES, Bill	15 August 1918	Nachez, Mississippi	Bill was shot to death. [Source: The Crises, “Old Magazine Articles”]
EARLE, Willie	abt 1947	Greenville, South Carolina	[Source: Fire in a Canebrake]
EBERHART, Lee	February 1921	Athens, Clarke County, Georgia	[Source: “Bloody Injuries” by Professor Wilkes, University of Georgia]
EDWARDS, Sam	17 January 1918	Hazelhurst, Mississippi	Sam was burned to death. He was charged with murder of Bera Willes, 17 year old white girl. [Source: The Crises, “Old Magazine Articles”]
ELDER, Claude	29 June 1905	Watkinsville, Oconee County, Georgia	[Source: “Bloody Injuries” by Professor Wilkes, University of Georgia]

EVANS, Spencer	22 March 1918	Crawfordville, Georgia	Spencer was hanged. He was convicted of criminal assault upon a colored woman at the February term of court and sentenced to be hanged, but a mob took him from jail and lynched him. [Source: The Crises, “Old Magazine Articles”]
FICARROTTA, Castenge	1910	Florida	[Source: “American Lynching”]
FRANK, Leo	1915	Atlanta, Georgia	Click here for more information. [Sources: The Encyclopedia of American Crime, “American Lynching”]
GILHAM, John	15 August 1918	Macon, Bibb County, Georgia	John was hanged for an alleged attack on two white women. [Source: The Crises, “Old Magazine Articles”]
GILLENWATERS, Jimmy	1912	Bowling Green, Kentucky	–
GOODMAN, Gus	4 November 1905	Bainbridge, Georgia	[Source: “American Lynching”]
GOOLSIE, Kirby	4 June 1918	Beaumont, Texas	Kirby was hanged for an alleged attack on a white girl. [Source: The Crises, “Old Magazine Articles”]
GOTO, Katsu	1889	Hanokaa, Hawaii	[Source: “American Lynching”]
HALE, West	4 December 1921	Oconee County, Georgia	[Source: “Bloody Injuries” by Professor Wilkes, University of Georgia]
HALL, “Bubber”	7 August 1918	Bastrop, Louisiana	Bubber was hanged for an alleged attack on a white woman. [Source: The Crises, “Old Magazine Articles”]

HALL, Robert	1943	Baker County, Georgia	Robert was beaten to death with a blackjack. [Source: Fire in a Canebrake]
HARDEMANN, Frank	16 October 1900	Wellston, Houston County, Georgia	Supposed crime: assaulting Mrs. B. H. Pierson, the wife of a Baptist preacher. [Source: The New York Times; Article Transcription]
HARMON, Jim	1890	Walton County, Georgia	Jim was shot to death for allegedly putting his hand on a white woman’s face while she slept; his body sunk to the bottom of a pond. [Source: Fire in a Canebrake]
HARRIS, Bob	29 June 1905	Watkinsville, Oconee County, Georgia	[Source: “Bloody Injuries” by Professor Wilkes, University of Georgia]
HEAD, Will	17 May 1918	Valdosta, Georgia	Will, along with Will Thompson, Hayes Turner, Mary Turner, Sydney Johnson, Eugene Rice, Chime Riley, Simon Schuman, and three unidentified negroes were hanged for alleged complicity in the murder of Hampton Smith. [Source: The Crises, “Old Magazine Articles”]
HICKORY, Richard	June 1884	New Lexington, Ohio	[Source: The Atlanta Constitution , Georgia, 18 Jun 1884]
HOSE, Sam	1899	Newnan / Atlanta, Georgia	Sam was hung and burned to death. Afterwards, men came at him with knives. [Sources: Fire in a Canebrake, “American Lynching”]
HOUSE, Alma	21 December 1918	Shubuta, Mississippi	Major Clarke and his brother Andrew, as well as Maggie and Alma House were hanged for the murder of Dr. E. L. Johnston. [Source: The Crises, “Old Magazine Articles”]
HOUSE, Maggie	21 December 1918	Shubuta, Mississippi	Major Clarke and his brother Andrew, as well as Maggie and Alma House were hanged for the murder of Dr. E. L. Johnston. [Source: The Crises, “Old Magazine Articles”]
HUDSON, Jim	26 January 1918	Benton, Louisiana	Jim was hanged for living with a white woman. [Source: The Crises, “Old Magazine Articles”]

JACKSON, Elmer	June 1920	Duluth, Minnesota	–
JACKSON, Henry	22 May 1918	Miami, Florida	Henry was hanged for throwing a white man underneath a train. [Source: The Crises, “Old Magazine Articles”]
JENKINS, John	1851	San Francisco	[Source: “American Lynching”]
JOHNSON, Ed	1906	Tennessee	[Source: “American Lynching”]
JOHNSON, Henry	abt December 1890	Central, Pickens County, South Carolina	Supposed crime: “outrage” committed on white woman. [Source: The Atlanta Constitution , Georgia, 4 Dec 1890]
JOHNSON, Sydney	17 May 1918	Valdosta, Georgia	Sydney, along with Will Head, Will Thompson, Hayes Turner, Mary Turner, Eugene Rice, Chime Riley, Simon Schuman, and three unidentified negroes were hanged for alleged complicity in the murder of Hampton Smith. [Source: The Crises, “Old Magazine Articles”]
JOINER, Saxe	1865	–	[Source: “American Lynching”]
JONES, Jim	26 February 1918	Rayville, Louisiana	Jim, along with Jim Lewis and Will Powell, were accused of stealing hogs. Two were hanged and one shot to death. One white man and one negro were killed in the exchange of shots. [Source: The Crises, “Old Magazine Articles”]
LEAPHEART, Mr.	May 1890	Lexington, South Carolina	[Source: The Atlanta Constitution , Georgia, 13 May 1890]
LEWIS, Charles	16 December 1918	Hickman, Kentucky	Charles was hanged for allegedly beating Deputy Sheriff Thomas. [Source: The Crises, “Old Magazine Articles”]

LEWIS, Jim	26 February 1918	Rayville, Louisiana	Jim, along with Jim Jones and Will Powell, were accused of stealing hogs. Two were hanged and one shot to death. One white man and one negro were killed in the exchange of shots. [Source: The Crises, “Old Magazine Articles”]
LOWE, George	4 December 1921	Oconee County, Georgia	[Source: “Bloody Injuries” by Professor Wilkes, University of Georgia]
MAXWELL, Ed	November 1881	Wisconsin	The Atlanta Constitution , Georgia, 22 Nov 1881: “The Wisconsin mob seems to have a penchant for anticipating the law just as well developed as if it were located in Louisiana. The lynching of Ed. Maxwell was neatly and expeditiously accomplished.”
MCGHIE, Isaac	June 1920	Duluth, Minnesota	–
MCGILL, L.	29 June 1918	Madill, Oklahoma	McGill was hanged for an alleged attack upon a white woman. [Source: The Crises, “Old Magazine Articles”]
MCGOWAN, Wilder	November 1938	Wiggins, Mississippi	Wilder was hanged for the rape and robbery of a 74 year old white woman. [Source: Men and Violence: Gender, Honor, and Rituals in Modern Europe and America, edited by Pieter Spierenburg]
MCILLHERON, Jim	12 February 1918	Estill Springs, Tennessee	Jim was burned. He was accused of shooting to death two white men. G. W. Lych, who hid McIllheron, was shot to death. [Source: The Crises, “Old Magazine Articles”]
MCMANUS, Frank	1882	Minneapolis	[Source: “American Lynching”]
MCNEEL, Georgia	16 March 1918	Monroe, Louisiana	Georgia and John Richards were hanged for an alleged attack upon a white woman. [Source: The Crises, “Old Magazine Articles”]
MCTATIE, Leon	30 July 1945	Lexington, Mississippi	Leon was flogged to death for allegedly stealing a saddle. [Source: Fire in a Canebrake]

MITCHELL, Allen	18 June 1918	Earle, Arkansas	Allen was hanged for wounding Mrs. W. M. Langston. [Source: The Crises, “Old Magazine Articles”]
MORALES, David Rivas	19 Jun 2007	Austin, Texas	An angry crowd beat a man to death after a vehicle he was riding in struck and injured a young girl…The little girl was taken to a hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
MORGAN, Dudley	22 May 1902	Longview, Gregg County, Texas	Dudley was tortured and burned alive at a stake. He was accused of physically assaulting a white woman.
NEAL, Claude	1934	Jackson County, Florida	–
NOYES, Berry	22 April 1918	Lexington, Kentucky	Berry was hanged for the murder of Sheriff W. E. McBride. [Source: The Crises, “Old Magazine Articles”]
O’NEAL, Obe	18 September 1918	Buff Lake, Texas	Supposed crime: shot and wounded a white man. [Source: The Crises, “Old Magazine Articles”]
PARKER, Mack Charles	1959	Poplarville, Mississippi	[Source: “American Lynching”]
PERSON, Ell	May 1917	Memphis, Tennessee	[Source: “Tennessee Encyclopedia”]
POPE, Henry	abt May 1888	Summerville, Chattooga County, Georgia	Henry was tried and convicted of rape, but was granted a respite by Gov. Gordon. Apparently, this did not sit well with some people. Henry was lynched. [Source: The Atlanta Constitution , Georgia, 2 May 1888]
POWELL, Will	26 February 1918	Rayville, Louisiana	Will, along with Jim Lewis and Jim Jones, were accused of stealing hogs. Two were hanged and one shot to death. One white man and one negro were killed in the exchange of shots. [Source: The Crises, “Old Magazine Articles”]

PRAEGER, Robert P.	4 April 1918	Collinsville, Illinois	Robert was hanged. He was accused of making disloyal remarks. [Source: The Crises, “Old Magazine Articles”]
PRICE, Sandy	29 June 1905	Watkinsville, Oconee County, Georgia	[Source: “Bloody Injuries” by Professor Wilkes, University of Georgia]
PUCKETT, Richard	1913	Laurens, South Carolina	–
RADNEY, Ike	11 August 1918	Colquit, Georgia	[Source: The Crises, “Old Magazine Articles”]
REEVES, Sandy	24 September 1918	Waycross, Georgia	Sandy was hanged for an alleged assault on a white girl. [Source: The Crises, “Old Magazine Articles”]
RICE, Eugene	17 May 1918	Valdosta, Georgia	Eugene, along with Will Head, Will Thompson, Hayes Turner, Mary Turner, Sydney Johnson, Chime Riley, Simon Schuman, and three unidentified negroes were hanged for alleged complicity in the murder of Hampton Smith. [Source: The Crises, “Old Magazine Articles”]
RICHARDS, John	16 March 1918	Monroe, Louisiana	John and George McNeel were hanged for an alleged attack upon a white woman. [Source: The Crises, “Old Magazine Articles”]
RILEY, Chime	17 May 1918	Valdosta, Georgia	Chime, along with Will Head, Will Thompson, Hayes Turner, Mary Turner, Sydney Johnson, Eugene Rice, Simon Schuman, and three unidentified negroes were hanged for alleged complicity in the murder of Hampton Smith. [Source: The Crises, “Old Magazine Articles”]
ROBINSON, Lewis	29 June 1905	Watkinsville, Oconee County, Georgia	[Source: “Bloody Injuries” by Professor Wilkes, University of Georgia]
ROBINSON, Rich	29 June 1905	Watkinsville, Oconee County, Georgia	[Source: “Bloody Injuries” by Professor Wilkes, University of Georgia]

ROBINSON, Willis	18 December 1918	Newport, Arkansas	Willis was hanged for the murder of Patrolman Charles Williams. [Source: The Crises, “Old Magazine Articles”]
RODRIGUEZ, Antonio	1910	Rock Springs, Texas	[Source: “American Lynching”]
SCHUMAN, Simon	17 May 1918	Valdosta, Georgia	Simon, along with Will Head, Will Thompson, Hayes Turner, Mary Turner, Sydney Johnson, Eugene Rice, Chime Riley, and three unidentified negroes were hanged for alleged complicity in the murder of Hampton Smith. [Source: The Crises, “Old Magazine Articles”]
SHIPMAN, Charles	14 November 1918	Fort Bend County, Texas	Supposed crime: disagreement with landowner. [Source: The Crises, “Old Magazine Articles”]
SHIPP, Thomas	7 August 1930	Marion, Indiana	[Source: “American Lynching”]
SHORTER, William	June 1893	Virginia	Supposed crime: Attempted rape upon Mrs. Clevenger. [Source: The Atlanta Constitution , Georgia, 14 June 1893]
SINGLETON, Claud	20 April 1918	Poplarville, Mississippi	Claud was hanged. He was accused of murdering a white man, and he had been sentenced to life imprisonment. [Source: The Crises, “Old Magazine Articles”]
SMITH, Abram	7 August 1930	Marion, Indiana	[Source: “American Lynching”]
SMITH, Henry	1893	Paris, Texas	[Source: “American Lynching”]
STACY, Rubin	19 July 1935	Ft. Lauderdale, Florida	[Source: “American Lynching”]

SULLIVAN, William	23 May 1893	Corunna, Michigan	Supposed crime: Murder of Layton Leech. [Source: The Atlanta Constitution , Georgia, 25 May 1893. Article Transcript]
TAYLOR, George	5 November 1918	Rolesville, North Carolina	George was hanged for rape. [Source: The Crises, “Old Magazine Articles”]
THOMPSON, Allie	24 November 1918	Culpepper, Virginia	Supposed crime: assaulting a white woman. [Source: The Crises, “Old Magazine Articles”]
THOMPSON, Will	17 May 1918	Valdosta, Georgia	Will, along with Will Head, Hayes Turner, Mary Turner, Sydney Johnson, Eugene Rice, Chime Riley, Simon Schuman, and three unidentified negroes were hanged for alleged complicity in the murder of Hampton Smith. [Source: The Crises, “Old Magazine Articles”]
TILL, Emmett	1955	Greenwood, Mississippi	[Source: “American Lynching”]
TURLEY, John	May 1893	Bedford, Indiana	Supposed crime: Murder of Conductor L. F. Price. [Source: The Atlanta Constitution , Georgia, 16 May 1893]
TURNER, Hayes	17 May 1918	Valdosta, Georgia	Hayes, along with Will Head, Will Thompson, Mary Turner, Sydney Johnson, Eugene Rice, Chime Riley, Simon Schuman, and three unidentified negroes were hanged for alleged complicity in the murder of Hampton Smith. [Source: The Crises, “Old Magazine Articles”]
TURNER, Mary	17 May 1918	Valdosta, Georgia	Mary, along with Will Head, Will Thompson, Hayes Turner, Sydney Johnson, Eugene Rice, Chime Riley, Simon Schuman, and three unidentified negroes were hanged for alleged complicity in the murder of Hampton Smith. [Source: The Crises, “Old Magazine Articles”]
VALENTINE, Edward	4 June 1918	Sanderson, Texas	Supposed crime: murder. [Source: The Crises, “Old Magazine Articles”]
VINSON, William	13 July 1942	Texarkana, Texas	[Source: Handbook of Texas Online]

WALKER, Henry	24 November 1879	Fort Valley, Georgia	[Source: Georgia Black Book: Morbid, Macabre and Disgusting Records of Genealogical Value]
WALKER, Zachariah	1911	Coatesville, Pennsylvania	[Source: “American Lynching”]
WAGNER, Frederick	28 August 1918	Hot Springs, Arkansas	Supposed crime: disloyal utterances. [Source: The Crises, “Old Magazine Articles”]
WASH, Howard	1943	Laurel, Mississippi	[Source: Fire in a Canebrake]
WASHINGTON, Jesse	1916	Waco, Texas	[Source: “American Lynching”]
WATTS, Joe	June 1911	Monroe, Walton County, Georgia	A mob of men hung Joe from a tree and shot him. [Source: Fire in a Canebrake]
WHITESIDE, George	11 November 1918	Sheffield, Alabama	George was hanged. He was charged with the murder of a policeman. [Source: The Crises, “Old Magazine Articles”]
WILLIAMS, Clyde	22 April 1918	Monroe, Louisiana	Clyde was hanged for shooting C. L. Thomas, a Missouri-Pacific station agent at Fawndale. [Source: The Crises, “Old Magazine Articles”]
WOMACK, John	22 May 1918	Red Level, Arkansas	John was shot for an alleged assault on a white woman. [Source: The Crises, “Old Magazine Articles”]
WOODSON, Edward	10 December 1918	Green River, Wyoming	Edward was charged with killing a railroad switchman. [Source: The Crises, “Old Magazine Articles”]
WRIGHT, Cleo	1942	Sikeston, Missouri	Cleo’s feet were tied to the back of a car, and he was drug through the city streets. Finally, he was burned to death. [Sources: Fire in a Canebrake, “American Lynching”]
YERBY, Gene	29 June 1905	Watkinsville, Oconee County, Georgia	[Source: “Bloody Injuries” by Professor Wilkes, University of Georgia]

  SOURCE”  http://www.southerngraves.net/deathrecords/unitedstateslynchings.html

THE CENTER FOR CIVIL AND HUMAN RIGHTS

 

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RESISTING LYNCHING: BLACK GRASSROOTS RESPONSES TO LYNCHING IN THE MISSISSIPPI AND ARKANSAS DELTAS, 1882-1938

 

 

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Black Victims of White Lynch Mobs by State, 1882-1930

SOURCE

 

 

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BLACK LYNCHING VICTIMS (1865-1965): “THE LYNCHING CALENDAR”

 

 

THE CENTURY OF LYNCHING 1865 – 1965

 

SOURCE

NAMES OF THE DEAD
A-L
M-Z

DATES OF DEATH BY YEAR
1865-1899
1900-1939
1940-1965

DATES OF DEATH BY DAYS
January-June
July-December

PLACES OF DEATH BY STATES
Alabama to Louisiana
Maryland to Wyoming

This site is dedicated to all the men, women and children that suffered these atrocities. May they never be forgotten.

From 1865 to 1965 more than 6,000 African-Americans died in racial violence in the United States. This inventory includes the names of 2,400 of the African-Americans who were lynched in the United States from 1865 to 1965. The inventory is necessarily incomplete. Records are scant. Newspaper reports are scattered. The Tuskegee Institute Lynching Inventory began in 1882 — just before the great surge of lynchings that occurred around the turn of the century — a surge that accompanied the American conquest of the Philippines, defeating the colored fighters of the Philippine War of Independence, called by Anglo-American historians “The Philippine Insurrection.” This inventory is offered in the spirit of healing and reconciliation, for until the wounds of the Lynching Century are healed there is little chance of reducing the ever so pervasive racism in the United States, as Ida B. Wells put it: The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave. Americans have a long way to go to see full realization of the promises of the Pledge of Allegiance, to see America as a land with Liberty and Justice for All instead of liberty and justice for the white Anglo-Saxon economic elite. Links

 Here is a partial list from The Lynching Calendar site of lynched victims from the year 1911:

1911

1 unidentified black woman and her 3 children murdered Rayne Louisiana January 1911

45 unidentified blacks murdered Rayne Louisiana January 1911

1 unidentified black man murdered Benton Arkansas January 14 1911

Gene Marshall lynched Shelbyville Kentucky January 15 1911

Wade Patterson lynched Shelbyville Kentucky January 15 1911

James West lynched Shelbyville Kentucky January 15 1911

Oval Poulson lynched Opelousas Louisiana January 20 1911

William Johnson lynched N/A Georgia January 22 1911

Iver Peterson lynched Eufala Alabama February 12 1911

Robert Jones lynched Augusta Georgia February 25 1911

John Vease lynched Augusta Georgia February 25 1911

3 members of Crowley family murdered Crowley Louisiana February 1911

4 members unidentified black family murdered Lafayette Louisiana March 1911

Galvin Baker lynched Marianna Florida March 5 1911

5 members of Cassaway family murdered San Antonio Texas April 1911

1 unidentified black man lynched Union Springs Alabama April 2 1911

Charles Hale lynched Lawrenceville Georgia April 7 1911

Dawson Jordan lynched Ellaville Georgia April 8 1911

Charles Pickett lynched Ellaville Georgia April 8 1911

Murray Burton lynched Ellaville Georgia April 8 1911

William Potter lynched Livermore Kentucky April 21 1911

John McLeod lynched Swainsboro Georgia May 18 1911

N/A Norris lynched Lake City Florida May 21 1911

5 unidentified black men lynched Lake City Florida May 21 1911

Benjamin Smith lynched Swainsboro Georgia May 21 1911

Joseph Moore lynched Crawfordsville Georgia May 22 1911

1 unidentified black woman and her son age 15 lynched Okemah Oklahoma May 25 1911 (Laura Nelson and her son, L.D.)

James Sweet lynched Gallatin Tennessee May 25 1911

Patrick Crump lynched White Haven Tennessee June 1 1911

John Winston lynched Lafayette Tennessee June 8 1911

William Bradford lynched Chunky Mississippi June 16 1911

Thomas Allen lynched Monroe Georgia June 30 1911

Foser Watts lynched Monroe Georgia June 30 1911

William McGroff lynched Baconton Georgia July 11 1911

Miles Taylor lynched Claibourne Par Louisiana July 24 1911

Samuel Verge lynched Demopolis Alabama August 4 1911

“Commodore” Jones lynched Farmersville Texas August 12 1911

Zacariah Walker lynched Coatesville Pennsylvania August 13 1911

1 unidentified black man lynched Durant Oklahoma August 18 1911

Peter Carter lynched Purcell Oklahoma August 24 1911

Peter Davis lynched Ft. Gaines Georgia August 29 1911

1 unidentified black man lynched Clayton Alabama August 30 1911

Arthur Dean lynched Augusta Arkansas September 9 1911

Walter Byrd lynched Winnsboro Louisiana September 15 1911

1 unidentified black man lynched Dublin Georgia October 5 1911

Willis Jackson lynched Greenville S. Carolina October 10 1911

Andrew Chapwan lynched N/A Georgia October 11 1911

A.B. Richardson lynched Caruthersville Missouri October 11 1911

Benjamin Woods lynched Caruthersville Missouri October 11 1911

Nathan Lucy lynched Forrest City Arkansas October 16 1911

Terry Lovelace lynched Manchester Georgia October 19 1911

Charles Lewis lynched Hope Arkansas October 20 1911

Edward Suddeth lynched Corneta Oklahoma October 22 1911

T. W. Walker lynched Washington Georgia October 28 1911

1 unidentified black man lynched Marshall Texas October 29 1911

Honea Path lynched Anderson S. Carolina November 1911

“Judge” Moseley lynched Lockhart Mississippi November 7 1911

William Nixon lynched Delhi Louisiana November 8 1911

Riley Johnson lynched Clarksville Texas November 8 1911

Norbert Randall murdered Lafayette Louisiana November 26 1911

2 unidentified black men murdered Mannford Oklahoma December 3 1911

Bud Walker lynched Mannford Oklahoma December 3 1911

Ben Pettigrew and 2 daughters lynched Clifton Tennessee December 6 1911

John Warren lynched Donald Georgia December 21 1911

King Davis lynched Brooklyn Maryland December 25 1911

The Reasons Given for Black Lynchings

• Acting suspiciously
• Gambling
• Quarreling
• Adultery
• Grave robbing
• Race hatred; Race troubles
• Aiding murderer
• Improper with white woman
• Rape
• Arguing with white man
• Incest
• Rape-murders
• Arson Inciting to riot
• Resisting mob
• Assassination
• Inciting trouble
• Robbery
• Attempted murder
• Indolence
• Running a bordello
• Banditry
• Inflammatory language
• Sedition
• Being disreputable
• Informing
• Slander
• Being obnoxious
• Injuring livestock
• Spreading disease

(Post revised on April 28, 2010)