Rope Around Neck of Ernest Glenwood, of Dooly County (1919)

One where the local newspaper tries to claim he was only "given a sound thrashing."

Not buying it.

Macon Telegraph (Georgia)
Saturday, 4 October 1919 - pg. 3 [via GenealogyBank]

FIND LOST NEGRO IN RIVER

Rope Around Neck of Ernest Glenwood, of Dooly County.
AMERICUS, Oct. 3. -- Mystery surrounding the disappearance of Ernest Glenwood, a negro, living near Lily, in Dooly county, was cleared up yesterday when his body was found in the Flint river and recovered by Tom Shirer, a white fisherman. Glenwood disappeared September 22, when, taken in custody by three masked men, and carried into the woods at night. John Graham, another negro, was with Glenwood when he was seized and carried off, but Graham was not molested.

It was charged that Glenwood had been circulating improper propaganda among Dooly county negroes, and it is believed he was given a sound thrashing by citizens who seized him and afterward released. How he came to meet death in the river is a mystery, although when found, the body had a rope about the neck, while a stout cord was tied around the right wrist. Several other negroes implicated in the circulation of the objectionable propaganda, were first whipped and then ordered to leave the county, since which time none of them have been heard from.

W. Fitzhugh Brundage wrote about this incident in Lynching in the New South (1993), citing a 4 October 1919 Atlanta Constitution (Georgia) news article:

Blacks who showed insufficient subservience to racial protocol in myriad ways suffered at the hands of small mobs...In September 1919, a mob lynched Ernest Glenwood, a farmhand in Dooly County, Georgia, for circulating "propaganda." The black man, who had been trying to organize black workers to refuse to work for 60 cents a day, was overpowered by three white men. They tied his arms together, forced him to jump into a river, and then riddled his body with bullets as he struggled for air.

A simple search on Google will give you the statistics. The Tuskegee Institute kept track of lynchings in America from 1882 - 1968. There were 581 in Mississippi, 531 in Georgia, 493 in Texas, 391 in Louisiana, 347 in Alabama, and so on. Total from all states: 4,743. That's more than one lynching and victim a week.

I feel a little like I should try to explain why I would give the horrible acts – those committed by the supposed criminal, as well as those committed on the supposed criminal – voice on this blog. There are no (at least to my knowledge) statistics showing the accuracy of the lynchers. How many times was an innocent person hung, riddled with bullets, and mutilated in the name of "justice?" I mean, we probably agree there are innocent people sitting in jail right now – with supposed checks and balances in place. Imagine when there were none. Shouldn't those innocent people be remembered?

Now, make no mistake, sometimes the lynching party "punished" the right person. As in, sometimes the true perpetrator was indeed apprehended – and then disposed of, often in a barbaric fashion. Even if you take the literal "eye for an eye" death penalty approach, I would not be surprised if that would have been an applicable punishment in only an infinitesimal number of cases. People were lynched for stealing, people were lynched for "insubordination," people were lynched for literally being in the wrong place at the wrong time. And let us not be cowards and leave out the racism debacle that lingers to this day. So another reason for giving voice to these past atrocities is in the same vein of "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

As a family historian, I am saddened to think (1) these revolting deeds took place, and (2) while statistics are easy to find, the names and stories of the individual victims are much harder to locate. A list of lynching victims will unfortunately never be complete. I hope that in a small way, posts such as these will serve as a memorial to those who were victims of Judge Lynch and his frightful law.

Another Lynching in Georgia: John Ware was Strung Up in 1904 Franklin County

According to MonroeWorkToday, the lynching of John Ware is referenced in A Festival of Violence: An Analysis of Southern Lynchings, 1882-1930 and Fitzhugh Brundage's Lynching in the New South: Georgia and Virginia, 1880-1930. Following is what Mr. Brundage wrote regarding labor disputes between the races and the lynching of John Ware specifically:

Labor disputes between blacks and whites, which routinely bred frustration, suspicion, and anger on both sides of the color line, were sometimes fought out to bloody conclusions, thus weaving a thread of violence into southern labor relations...Because a defense of white authority, and conversely a challenge to that authority, were never far beneath the surface of any labor dispute involving whites and blacks, more than just economic motives could be at work in both the murder of a white planter by a tenant and the subsequent lynching of the tenant.

The black man who openly challenged his white employer was uncommon; had he not been, the racial hierarchy and the system of labor at its foundation would have been jeopardized. But some did challenge...When John Ware, a tenant farmer in Franklin County, Georgia, refused to sell his cotton to the merchant of his landlord's choice in 1904, the two men began to fight and the black man killed the planter...[T]he black man's stand led to his swift execution by a mob. These lynchings drove home to blacks the peril of challenging their employers; as one white planter curtly explained, "when [an African American] gets ideas, the best thing to do is to get him under ground as quick as possible."

Newspaper Account of the Lynching of John Ware

19 September 1904 Idaho Statesman

Charlotte Observer (North Carolina)
19 September 1904 - pg. 1 [via GenealogyBank]

ANOTHER LYNCHING IN GEORGIA.

John Ware Strung Up in Franklin County for Fatally Shooting a Young White Man, C. Y. Daniel.
Atlanta, Sept. 18. -- A special to The Constitution from Royston, Ga., says:

Judge Lynch held court in Franklin county to-day, and as a result the riddred [sic] body of John Ware, a negro, is swinging from the limb of a tree between here and Carnesville. Ware was done to death by a mob for fatally shooting C. Y. Daniel, a son of George Daniel, of Danielsville, to-day. Young Daniel and the negro had some words over a trivial matter. It is said the negro, becoming greatly enraged and saying that no white man should run over him, drew a pistol and shot Daniel, the bullet inflicting a wound that will prove fatal.

The news of the shooting quickly spread and a crowd began gathering, many leaving church to join in the chase for the negro. The negro was captured early in the afternoon and while being hurried to Carnesville by the sheriff, was overtaken by the mob. The negro was taken from the sheriff and deputies, seated on a horse, a noose fitted about his neck and the other end tied to a limb. The horse was then struck a sharp blow and dashed away, leaving the negro swinging to the limb. Half a hundred shots rang out and the swaying body was riddled. The corpse was left hanging by the mob.

Per a short article in the 20 September 1904 Montgomery Advertiser (Alabama), Georgia's Governor Joseph M. Terrell took "a firm stand against lynching by offering a reward of $250 each for the arrest and conviction of any of the men who took part in the lynching of John Ware, the negro hanged by a mob in Franklin County..."

It Didn't Work.

Ocala Banner (Florida)
14 October 1904 [via GenealogyBank]

LYNCHERS NOT INDICTED.

Franklin County Jury Could Find No Evidence.
Atlanta, Oct. 13. -- The presentments of the Franklin county grand jury contain an extensive report of the investigation into the lynching of the negro John Ware, made with the view of indicting the lynchers, as recommended by Judge Russell in his charge to the grand jury.

Solicitor C. H. Band, of the western circuit, took a very active part in the investigations and in cross examining the witnesses summoned to appear before the grand jury. His best efforts, however, and those of the members of the grand jury, were unavailing since no evidence was adduced on which to issue an indictment.

A simple search on Google will give you the statistics. The Tuskegee Institute kept track of lynchings in America from 1882 - 1968. There were 581 in Mississippi, 531 in Georgia, 493 in Texas, 391 in Louisiana, 347 in Alabama, and so on. Total from all states: 4,743. That's more than one lynching and victim a week.

I feel a little like I should try to explain why I would give the horrible acts – those committed by the criminal, as well as those committed on the criminal – voice on this blog. There are no (at least to my knowledge) statistics showing the accuracy of the lynchers. How many times was an innocent person hung, riddled with bullets, and mutilated in the name of "justice?" I mean, we probably agree there are innocent people sitting in jail right now – with supposed checks and balances in place. Imagine when there were none. Shouldn't those innocent people be remembered?

Now, make no mistake, sometimes the lynching party "punished" the right person. As in, sometimes the true perpetrator was indeed apprehended – and then disposed of, often in a barbaric fashion. Even if you take the literal "eye for an eye" death penalty approach, I would not be surprised if that would have been an applicable punishment in only an infinitesimal number of cases. People were lynched for stealing, people were lynched for "insubordination," people were lynched for literally being in the wrong place at the wrong time. And let us not be cowards and leave out the racism debacle that lingers to this day. So another reason for giving voice to these past atrocities is in the same vein of "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

As a family historian, I am saddened to think (1) these revolting deeds took place, and (2) while statistics are easy to find, the names and stories of the individual victims are much harder to locate. A list of lynching victims will unfortunately never be complete. I hope that in a small way, posts such as these will serve as a memorial to those who were victims of Judge Lynch and his frightful law.

Daniel Odwell Lynched a Year Removed from Alleged Crime (Or was it Henry Barnes?)

According to MonroeWorkToday, the lynching of Daniel Odwell is referenced in A Festival of Violence: An Analysis of Southern Lynchings, 1882-1930 and Fitzhugh Brundage's Lynching in the New South: Georgia and Virginia, 1880-1930. Following excerpt from the latter:

Private mobs, unlike terrorist mobs, usually murdered victims who were already in legal custody. In Georgia between 1880 and 1930, 80 percent of the victims of private mobs were taken from law officers...Without question, local law officers, whether through woeful incompetence or complicity, often aided the work of the mobs.

Macon Telegraph (Georgia)
Friday, 17 September 1886 - pg. 4 [via GenealogyBank]

LYNCHED AFTER A YEAR.

DANIEL ODWELL, A YOUNG NEGRO, LYNCHED YESTERDAY.

A Year ago He Assaulted a White Girl Eleven Years Old -- Arrested Wednesday -- On the Way to Jail He was Taken and Hanged.

MILLEN, September 16. -- About a year ago, Daniel Odwell, a negro, twenty-six years old, raped a white girl, aged eleven years, seven miles from here. He was apprehended yesterday, committed to the Sylvania jail this morning, in charge of Constable D. M. Brinson. A party of men overtook him two miles out, hung the negro, and riddled his body.

Another report is that the darky was burned.

IS HE THE SAME MAN?
By Associated Press.
AUGUSTA, GA., September 16. -- Henry Barnes, colored, was lynched to-day at Rogers' Station on the Central railroad. A party of masked men did the lynching. Barnes was taken from a train near Millen and riddled with bullets.

A simple search on Google will give you the statistics. The Tuskegee Institute kept track of lynchings in America from 1882 - 1968. There were 581 in Mississippi, 531 in Georgia, 493 in Texas, 391 in Louisiana, 347 in Alabama, and so on. Total from all states: 4,743. That's more than one lynching and victim a week.

I feel a little like I should try to explain why I would give the horrible acts – those committed by the criminal, as well as those committed on the criminal – voice on this blog. There are no (at least to my knowledge) statistics showing the accuracy of the lynchers. How many times was an innocent person hung, riddled with bullets, and mutilated in the name of "justice?" I mean, we probably agree there are innocent people sitting in jail right now – with supposed checks and balances in place. Imagine when there were none. Shouldn't those innocent people be remembered?

Now, make no mistake, sometimes the lynching party "punished" the right person. As in, sometimes the true perpetrator was indeed apprehended – and then disposed of, often in a barbaric fashion. Even if you take the literal "eye for an eye" death penalty approach, I would not be surprised if that would have been an applicable punishment in only an infinitesimal number of cases. People were lynched for stealing, people were lynched for "insubordination," people were lynched for literally being in the wrong place at the wrong time. And let us not be cowards and leave out the racism debacle that lingers to this day. So another reason for giving voice to these past atrocities is in the same vein of "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

As a family historian, I am saddened to think (1) these revolting deeds took place, and (2) while statistics are easy to find, the names and stories of the individual victims are much harder to locate. A list of lynching victims will unfortunately never be complete. I hope that in a small way, posts such as these will serve as a memorial to those who were victims of Judge Lynch and his frightful law.

The Ty-Ty Tragedy: Ed Henderson was Lynched for the Usual Crime in 1899

According to MonroeWorkToday, the lynching of Ed Henderson is referenced in A Festival of Violence: An Analysis of Southern Lynchings, 1882-1930 and Fitzhugh Brundage's Lynching in the New South: Georgia and Virginia, 1880-1930. Following excerpt from the latter:

...Posses, which shared with mass mobs broad communal participation and support, claimed more lives in southern Georgia than in any other region of the state...Moreover, the tradition of man-hunting became for white men a welcome opportunity to demonstrate their civic commitment in a region where independence and isolation otherwise were the rule. Whites had long boasted that southern Georgia was "white man's country," and the pervasiveness of racial violence by mass mobs and posses demonstrated that large numbers of whites were only too ready to resort to violence in order to maintain the boast.

Macon Telegraph (Georgia)
Friday, 15 September 1899 - pg. 1 [via GenealogyBank]

THE TY-TY TRAGEDY

How Negro Brutes Attacked and Outraged the Woman.

CITIZENS TO RESCUE

THEY RUSHED IN FROM ALL DIRECTIONS TO AVENGE.

It Has Been Reported That All the Negroes Were Backing up the Rapists -- Old Man Boynton's Supposed Treachery -- Lynching of One of Wretches.

TY TY, Ga., Sept. 14. -- This morning a frightened and humiliated family breathe more freely, for they feel that at least one of the brutes who deliberately blighted their happiness and flushed the cheek with shame is no longer a terror to the helpless and unsuspecting.

The bare facts that an outrage upon a defenseless woman has been committed, that several negroes have been arrested and that one has been identified and hanged, have already gone out to the world, but there are numerous details and attendant circumstances which render the event unique. A full account, therefore, would be of interest to the public.

As already chronicled, the rape was committed on Monday afternoon at Ty Ty. The unfortunate woman is 22 years old and lives with her father, Mr. Johnson. Her name was Jennie Johnson. She married a man named Ash, but she has been a widow something more than a year.

On last Monday afternoon she and her little brother, about 10 years old, and not her little son, as some of the dispatches have stated, were picking cotton in a field within the corporate limits of the town. They were within less than a quarter of a mile of the depot and quietly at work, when they were both suddenly surprised by two negroes attacking her from behind. She was in a stooping posture when one of them caught her by the shoulders, pulled her backward and began choking her. She and the little boy began screaming. The negroes demanded them to hush or they would kill them. But almost the instant of the attack the boy ran toward the depot crying for help. Before he reached the depot he met his father going to the rescue and said: "Pa, two negroes are down yonder killing sister." Mr. Johnson said: "Who are they?" The boy replied: "One of them is the negro that was around here this morning with old Henry Boynton, but I don't know the other one."

Before Mr. Johnson could get a gun and reach the spot the negro who was choking Mrs. Ash succeeded in executing his devilish design, while the other negro held her feet.

The negroes, hearing Mr. Johnson and the boy coming, released Mrs. Ash before the negro who held her feet could carry out his intention to treat her as the other had done, and they both escaped into a branch close at hand.

Mrs. Ash said that the negro who held her feet was a short, chunky black negro, with thick lips and bushy hair, and that he wore an old brown hat and blue overalls, with apron front supported by suspenders. The negro who assaulted her was tall and black, but not so dark as the other, and wore a blue-checked shirt and a broad-brimmed black hat, turned up behind.

A large posse of men were soon in pursuit of the negroes, and later the service of hounds was secured, but they were young and untrained and were really of little service.

Quite a number of negroes were carried before Mrs. Ash from time to time. Among them were two who answered fairly well the description of the tall negro. She said as each was presented that he looked very much like the one, but the little boy persisted that he was not the man.

Yesterday morning the negro who was lynched was arrested at Tifton while working at Mr. Ridgen's gin. He was carried to Ty Ty yesterday afternoon and as soon as he made his appearance in the town the little Johnsonu [sic] boy declared emphatically that he was the negro who assaulted his sister. The citizens of the town knew him to have been with old Henry Boynton all the morning of the day of the crime. He was carried before Mrs. Ash, who instantly identified him, although he wore different clothes and hat from those described above.

A messenger was sent from Tifton with the clothes and hat which he wore when he reached Tifton from Ty Ty on the day of the crime. Mrs. Ash recognized them at once. The broad black hat, from having been worn that way, stood turned up behind. When it was presented to Mrs. Ash the turned up part was held out straight and she was asked if that was the hat worn by her assailant. She replied:

"That's exactly like it; only his was turned up behind."

This said, the man holding the hat removed his hand, and the part held by him assumed its former turned-up position.

There were about 100 men in Ty Ty, all heavily armed with repeating rifles, shotguns and pistols. They were very cautious, and without the slightest friction or discord were a unit in favor of not hurting any innocent negro, and, as already stated, several were turned loose unharmed. But the difference of carriage and countenance presented by the negro lynched and that of the other negroes carried before Mrs. Ash was noticeable in the extreme. He stoutly declared his innocence, but made a dozen conflicting statements, all placing him in a very awkward light.

Soon after the crime was committed the negro's sister bought three tickets to Tifton, but there was only one negro with her. Just as the train was pulling out her brother came hurriedly up and boarded the train. His name, I have not yet stated, was Ed. Henderson. His uncle, old Henry Boynton, seemed very officious in helping the white people to hunt the guilty negroes, and told a great tale about seeing two negroes going across the field and hiding in a barn, and presently it was found that Henry had disappeared from the scene. The people the decided that his feigned help was only for a decoy until the guilty parties could get a good start.

Ed. Henderson, who was lynched, was not suspected as the guilty party until the day after the crime. This being so, he was asked why he left as he did, his sister getting the ticket for him, and he coming in at the last moment. He answered: "Well, I had heard that some devilment had been done, and old man Henry dent [sic] and told me that the white folks was done and after me with guns and things, and I had better skip out."

Just after dark Wednesday night, the night of the lynching, several circumstances had accumulated to the effect that the citizens suspected the negroes were massing themselves in a thicket in the edge of town. Immediately Tifton, Sylvester, Sumner and Poulan were notified. In response to the message a special train from Tifton carried forty-three men, and others went from there by private conveyance. An east-bound through freight was held up at Sylvester and seventeen men boarded it for Ty Ty, afterwards taking as many more from Sumner and Poulan. Before 11 o'clock more than two hundred cool, sober, sensible, determined men, armed to the teeth, were congregated on the streets of Ty Ty.

About 12 o'clock the crowd moved away from the depot, and later they came back. As the special train went back to Tifton there could be seen through the radiating beams thrown out from the engine's headlight the ghastly figure of a condemned rapist dangling twenty feet in the air suspended from the cross beam of a telegraph pole 300 yards from the depot.

The negro was allowed to pray before he was hanged. In the prayer he said that he was going to hell or heaven, one of the other, but he didn't know which.

On the telegraph pole from which he was suspended was tacked a card bearing this inscription: "Given a fair trial and found guilty. Negroes must keep their hands off white women."

The quiet, concerted action and perfect order of the crowd was remarkable. Every man was sober, not a shot was fired or a shout uttered. Nothing was heard above a conversational tone. A protracted meeting was being held at the white Methodist church on the opposite side of the street from the home of Mr. Johnson, where the prostrated woman lay, and from dark until all were gon e the entire town was as quiet as a Sabbath morning, and some of the words of the preacher could be understood by men in the crowd.

The west-bound passenger train arrived at Ty Ty a little after 1 o'clock, after the lynching had occurred, and on it came an additional force of men from Willacoochee. They had heard that trouble with the negroes was expected and they seized the opportunity to give help.

Mr. Johnson, the father of the unfortunate woman, has lived with his family for sixteen years in Worth county, and during the last six years of that time he has lived in Ty Ty. He and his family are poor, but honorable. The best people of Ty Ty say that nought has ever been charged against the character of any member of the family. And when brutal negroes dare to treat them this it is enough to "turn the coward's heart to steel, the sluggard's blood to fire."

Everything is quiet in Ty Ty this morning and the search for the other negro will be continued. Information has been received that a negro from Worth county and answering the description of the negro wanted is in jail in Albany.

Before Ed Henderson was hanged he said that old Henry Boynton committed the rape himself, but this is not believed, for he is known to Mrs. Ash and her little brother, and they do not accept this statement.

After old Henry slipped off from Ty Ty he was caught up at Sumner and was being brought back. He told such a smooth tale that he was released, so some say; but others say that he attempted to jump from the buggy in which he was being carried and fell and broke his neck. This latter statement is pretty generally doubted. The fact remains, however, that old Henry is not to be found around Ty Ty.

The people of this section are quiet, law-abiding, home-loving people, and will protect the virtue of their women so long as blood courses in their veins.

A simple search on Google will give you the statistics. The Tuskegee Institute kept track of lynchings in America from 1882 - 1968. There were 581 in Mississippi, 531 in Georgia, 493 in Texas, 391 in Louisiana, 347 in Alabama, and so on. Total from all states: 4,743. That's more than one lynching and victim a week.

I feel a little like I should try to explain why I would give the horrible acts – those committed by the criminal, as well as those committed on the criminal – voice on this blog. There are no (at least to my knowledge) statistics showing the accuracy of the lynchers. How many times was an innocent person hung, riddled with bullets, and mutilated in the name of "justice?" I mean, we probably agree there are innocent people sitting in jail right now – with supposed checks and balances in place. Imagine when there were none. Shouldn't those innocent people be remembered?

Now, make no mistake, sometimes the lynching party "punished" the right person. As in, sometimes the true perpetrator was indeed apprehended – and then disposed of, often in a barbaric fashion. Even if you take the literal "eye for an eye" death penalty approach, I would not be surprised if that would have been an applicable punishment in only an infinitesimal number of cases. People were lynched for stealing, people were lynched for "insubordination," people were lynched for literally being in the wrong place at the wrong time. And let us not be cowards and leave out the racism debacle that lingers to this day. So another reason for giving voice to these past atrocities is in the same vein of "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

As a family historian, I am saddened to think (1) these revolting deeds took place, and (2) while statistics are easy to find, the names and stories of the individual victims are much harder to locate. A list of lynching victims will unfortunately never be complete. I hope that in a small way, posts such as these will serve as a memorial to those who were victims of Judge Lynch and his frightful law.

Charles Gibson had Been Hunted All Day by a Mob (in 1897)

According to MonroeWorkToday, the lynching of Charles Gibson is referenced in A Festival of Violence: An Analysis of Southern Lynchings, 1882-1930 and Fitzhugh Brundage's Lynching in the New South: Georgia and Virginia, 1880-1930.

Columbus Daily Enquirer (Georgia)
Tuesday, 14 September 1897 - pg. 4 [via GenealogyBank]

MISS CHAPMAN AVENGED.

Her Assailant Shot and Hung Near Macon.

Macon, Ga., Sept. 13. – The assault committed on Miss Sallie Chapman in her bed room has been avenged.

Charles Gibson, a negro about 28 years of age, made a dying confession of the crime last night and was immediately afterwards hanged to a nearby tree.

Gibson was shot down by the deputy sheriffs in the swamp about two miles from the city. He had been hunted all day by a mob, and, though wounded in the shoulder, would probably have escaped under cover of darkness had he not been discovered by the posse just as night was setting in.

Yesterday morning Gibson shot and killed another negro, Jim Smith, as the result of an altercation which rumor said arose over the shoes that were stolen from Miss Chapman's room on the morning of the horrible assault. The cause of the quarrel that led up to the killing of Smith has not, however, been positively confirmed. Smith was instantly killed.

The report of the pistol aroused the neighborhood on Elm street and Gibson, who at once ran, was shot at several times. Mr. George Hyster shot his hat off with a Winchester rifle ball, but at this point the negro escaped.

He was followed in his flight to the swamp by a crowd that gathered in numbers as it went. Deputy Hines Millnors was in the lead. He kept doggedly on Gibson's trail and alone followed him into the swamp. Once he got a good shot at him and hit him in the shoulder. This was at about 10 o'clock.

A negro living close by was questioned and he directed them to the place close to which he said Gibson was lying hid.

A line was formed and the posse swept through the swamp. Young Henley Napier, on horseback, was ahead. He rode along a ditch and as he did so Police Officer Pierce saw Gibson lying there. He called to Napier to look out, and as he did so Gibson arose and fired at Napier, missing him. He then turned and opened fire on Deputy Sheriff Jobson and the firing became general. Gibson fired four shots and was brought down by a bullet from Jobson's pistol, which struck him in the side.

It was a fatal shot. The man, gasping for breath, was surrounded and one of the crowd said:

"You are going to h—l anyhow, and you don't want to go with a lie on your lips. Did you got into Miss Sallie Chapman's bedroom and assault her?"

It was a chance question, though suspicion pointed to the negro on account of the finding of the shoes which were taken from the house, and which had been traced to the house of a woman named Lou Daniels, with whom Gibson has been living. The negro hesitated when asked the question, and then said:

"Yes, boss, I done it."

Sheriff Westcott had gone to a nearby house to get a wagon in which to take the wounded man to town. The mob of 30 or 40 men, hearing of the confession, and hearing it repeated again and again, kuickly [sic] secured a plow line and the dying man was strung up to a tree. He hung there about three minutes and Sheriff Westcott returning, cut him down. He lived for about five minutes afterwards.

---

A simple search on Google will give you the statistics. The Tuskegee Institute kept track of lynchings in America from 1882 - 1968. There were 581 in Mississippi, 531 in Georgia, 493 in Texas, 391 in Louisiana, 347 in Alabama, and so on. Total from all states: 4,743. That's more than one lynching and victim a week.

I feel a little like I should try to explain why I would give the horrible acts – those committed by the criminal, as well as those committed on the criminal – voice on this blog. There are no (at least to my knowledge) statistics showing the accuracy of the lynchers. How many times was an innocent person hung, riddled with bullets, and mutilated in the name of "justice?" I mean, we probably agree there are innocent people sitting in jail right now – with supposed checks and balances in place. Imagine when there were none. Shouldn't those innocent people be remembered?

Now, make no mistake, sometimes the lynching party "punished" the right person. As in, sometimes the true perpetrator was indeed apprehended – and then disposed of, often in a barbaric fashion. Even if you take the literal "eye for an eye" death penalty approach, I would not be surprised if that would have been an applicable punishment in only an infinitesimal number of cases. People were lynched for stealing, people were lynched for "insubordination," people were lynched for literally being in the wrong place at the wrong time. And let us not be cowards and leave out the racism debacle that lingers to this day. So another reason for giving voice to these past atrocities is in the same vein of "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

As a family historian, I am saddened to think (1) these revolting deeds took place, and (2) while statistics are easy to find, the names and stories of the individual victims are much harder to locate. A list of lynching victims will unfortunately never be complete. I hope that in a small way, posts such as these will serve as a memorial to those who were victims of Judge Lynch and his frightful law.

When an Event Involving My Relative Sparked a Lynching (Part III)

[Part I is here.] [Part II is here.]

Recently, I have been studying and compiling information about lynchings in Georgia.  So when I came across the article about my second cousin, James Francis Hammock, he was actually not the subject of my search.  The victim of the mob violence, John Shake, was.

It most likely was on the second read-through of the article that I made the connection.  I distinctly remember my jaw dropping, and a small amount of anxiety creeping up within me.  Later, a sense of relief came in a wave when I realized J. F. Hammock was not directly involved in the brutal hanging of John Shake.  Next came the wondering of how my cousin felt about what happened.  The genealogist side took over, and I got lucky.

DEPLORES LYNCHING.

Notwithstanding Victim Was Negro Who Shot Him.
Macon, Ga., July 28. – G. [sic] F. Hammock, a Dunbar merchant who is in the hospital here, deplores the lynching Sunday of John Shake, a negro, by a Houston county mob for shooting Hammock, while robbing his store.

Hammock will recover.

[News-Press (Ft. Myers, Florida) – 28 July 1913 – via Newspapers.com]

I won't lie.  Finding this blurb in the newspaper made me feel better.  But, truth be told, I can't really know for sure how genuine the comment was.  The clipping is simply something to be added to the whole body of research.

I chose not to dissect the original article detailing the alleged crime, as I believe knowing that it all happened in 1913 Georgia is enough.  If you are unsure of my meaning of this, may I humbly suggest the time period and environment is definitely worthy of study.  My opinion of the alleged criminality of John Shake is this:  maybe the decision to shoot at Hammock was one of opportunity.  If John Shake was truly caught trying to rob the store, he likely saw no way out.  He might have felt, believed, known, that his life was over no matter what he did.  So his best option was to try to escape the untenable situation.

What can I do to help the cause? "Tell the world the facts."

I've been reading some of the brave work done by anti-lynching crusader Ida B. Wells-Barnett.  So much – yet too much for this space – is worth quoting.  Hopefully the following will be sufficient:

The Negro does not claim that all of the one thousand black men, women and children, who have been hanged, shot and burned alive during the past ten years, were innocent of the charges made against them…

But we do insist that the punishment is not the same for both classes of criminals.  In lynching, opportunity is not given the Negro to defend himself against the unsupported accusations of white men and women.  The word of the accuser is held to be true and the excited bloodthirsty mob demands that the rule of law be reversed and instead of proving the accused to be guilty, the victim of their hate and revenge must prove himself innocent.  No evidence he can offer will satisfy the mob; he is bound hand and foot and swung to eternity.  Then to excuse its infamy, the mob almost invariably reports the monstrous falsehood that its victim made a full confession before he was hanged.

Does any of this matter today? Should it matter at all?

I can only answer those questions for myself:  yes, it matters, and it should.  Some may argue I'm applying presentism, interpreting past events in terms of modern values.  I respectfully disagree.

Slavery had been abolished with the ratification of the 13th amendment almost 48 years prior to the lynching of John Shake.  African Americans quickly proved they could be an integral part of society; they ran businesses and held public office during Reconstruction.  But southern states chose to enact harsh laws that enforced segregation and rolled back many of the meager freedoms African Americans had gained.

The law of the land had been circumvented.  Because African Americans had gotten too "uppity," mobs of people felt it necessary to teach them their place.  On a constant basis, and to the death.

This is not only wrong now, it was wrong then.

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A Promise Kept

I've said my piece regarding the lynching of John Shake and my cousin's part in it, but I promised to return to the map shared in the first post.  Here it is again:

Even though I wasn't around in 1913, and John wasn't around when I grew up, I look at this map and see our crossed paths.

I was born in Wellston, though the name was changed to Warner Robins before my birth.  The Houston Medical Center stands roughly seven miles from the Dunbar Community.  Before I left my hometown a few years ago, I was living at Centerville – my apartment being roughly four miles from the Dunbar Community.

I've been to the swampy, muddy banks of the Ocmulgee River.  I can picture the scene in my mind.  The map above is dated 1933, but you have to believe those same pathways existed twenty years before.

I'll bet I've walked where those bloodhounds and groups of men – swelling to the number of 100 – feverishly searched and hunted for their prey.  I might have even stood on the once blood-soaked ground below where John Shake took his last breath.  This research experience, some 105 years after the fact, hit home for me.

Post (Post?) Script

It just so happens I am finishing this post on the 150th anniversary of the birth of W. E. B. Du Bois.  A link to an article written by Ibram X. Kendi came with my Twitter feed this morning.  The article is entitled The Soul of W. E. B. Du Bois, and it's about Du Bois's famous collection of essays called The Souls of Black Folk.  I confess to having never read this collection of Du Bois writings, but Kendi's article convinced me to do so.  The Souls of Black Folk is now waiting on my kindle.  A portion of The Soul of W. E. B. Du Bois combines words penned by Du Bois and Kendi:

“Let there spring, Gentle One, from out its leaves vigor of thought and thoughtful deep to reap the harvest wonderful,” Du Bois prayed at the end of Souls, in the section he called an afterthought. “Let the ears of a guilty people tingle with truth, and seventy millions sigh for the righteousness which exalteth nations, in this drear day when human brotherhood is a mockery and a snare.” Looking at the harvest of black thought since Souls, his prayers have been answered. But looking at our drear days when human unity remains a farce, his prayers have yet to be answered.

Usual Crime, Usual Penalty: the Lynching of Jack Hilsman

According to MonroeWorkToday, the lynching of Jack Hilsman is referenced in A Festival of Violence: An Analysis of Southern Lynchings, 1882-1930 and Fitzhugh Brundage's Lynching in the New South: Georgia and Virginia, 1880-1930.

Macon Telegraph (Georgia)
Wednesday, 25 July 1900 [via GenealogyBank]

THE USUAL CRIME; USUAL PENALTY

Jack Hilsman Was Lynched at Knoxville.

ASSAULTED A GIRL

WAS TO BE BROUGHT TO MACON JAIL

Had Been Identified By the Young Lady and By a Negro Woman Who Saw Him Fleeing From the House – Betrayed His Employer's Confidence.

Jack Hilsman, the 25-year-old negro who was confined in Macon's jail last week for safe keeping, but who was taken to Knoxville and given a commitment hearing Monday on the charge of assault, was lynched Monday night, having been taken from the Crawford county officers by a number of the neighbors of the farmer whose daughter was the object of the negro's attack.

The negro had been committed to jail by Justice K. P. Lowe of Knoxville, and was to have been brought back to Macon yesterday for safe-keeping.

The negro's crime occurred last Thursday at Musella, a small village about twelve miles from Knoxville.  The negro had been employed on the plantation of Mr. James Mitchell.  Mr. Mitchell was away from the residence on Thursday and the young lady was alone in the house, her two sisters being engaged at the dairy, some distance away.  The negro discovered these facts and he entered the house.  He seized the young lady, but before he could overpower her she made such outcries as to attract the attention of her sisters, and others nearby.  The brute ran away, but a posse was hastily formed, and he was pursued and caught within a few hours.

He was brought to Macon, it being about as near to this place as to Knoxville, but he was taken to Knoxville for a commitment hearing on Monday.  He stoutly denied his guilt, but he was identified by the young lady and by a negro woman who saw him running from the house, and he was sentenced to jail.  It was not known that he was in any danger of being lynched, as only four men from the neighborhood of Musella were noticed about the court house at Knoxville during or just after the trial.  The sheriff and his deputies were taking the negro to the jail, after the court had decided that he was probably guilty as charged, and on the way the four men from Mr. Mitchell's neighborhood rushed in and sought to take charge of the prisoner.  They were quickly repulsed.

The incident caused great excitement, however, and as the posse moved on toward the jail a considerable crowd gathered.  It seems that there were in and about the town, hidden out, a large number of people from the district in which the crime had been committed.  Some had been just out of town, in the woods, it is understood, and when the trouble began they all rushed in and joined the gathering mob.  Before the posse had gotten to the jail quite a formidable crowd had gathered, and they made an assault on the posse.  After a determined scuffle, the crowd overpowered the guards and got the prisoner.  Not a shot was fired.

The crowd seemed to have formed its plans fully beforehand.  They carried Hilsman out to a negro settlement about half a mile from town, and there hung him in full view of the negro cabins.  They riddled the body with shots.

…Sheriff Handcock and County Treasurer L. A. Hatcher pleaded with the crowd, but to no avail.

The body was still hanging early yesterday morning.

The lynching was an orderly affair, in its way, and after the scuffle in which the negro was captured there was no undue demonstration.  The shots were fired into the negro's body immediately after he was hung, and then the crowd dispersed.

Jailer Phil Stephan said:

…"The sheriff and I both suspected that the negro would be lynched and we made unusually slow progress in turning him over, hoping that the train might leave him.  The negro begged us most piteously not to let him go, and we were tempted to telephone the governor, but since the judge and sheriff had sent for the prisoner to stand his commitment trial, we thought it beyond our jurisdiction to interfere.  When they led the negro out I remarked to the servants, who were looking on in silence, 'Look at him well, he'll never come back.'"

While I don't pretend to know for certain the true details of what transpired between Mr. Hilsman and Miss Mitchell, I can't help but think of the following quotes from anti-lynching activist Ida B. Wells-Barnett:

With the Southern white man, any mésalliance existing between a white woman and a colored man is a sufficient foundation for the charge of rape.

…the same crime committed by white men against Negro women and girls, is never punished by mob or the law.  A leading journal in South Carolina openly said some months ago that "it is not the same thing for a white man to assault a colored woman as for a colored man to assault a white woman, because the colored woman had no finer feelings nor virtue to be outraged!" – from The Red Record

Note: the above title is available for free with kindle.

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A simple search on Google will give you the statistics. The Tuskegee Institute kept track of lynchings in America from 1882 - 1968. There were 581 in Mississippi, 531 in Georgia, 493 in Texas, 391 in Louisiana, 347 in Alabama, and so on. Total from all states: 4,743. That's more than one lynching and victim a week.

I feel a little like I should try to explain why I would give the horrible acts – those committed by the criminal, as well as those committed on the criminal – voice on this blog. There are no (at least to my knowledge) statistics showing the accuracy of the lynchers. How many times was an innocent person hung, riddled with bullets, and mutilated in the name of "justice?" I mean, we probably agree there are innocent people sitting in jail right now – with supposed checks and balances in place. Imagine when there were none. Shouldn't those innocent people be remembered?

Now, make no mistake, sometimes the lynching party "punished" the right person. As in, sometimes the true perpetrator was indeed apprehended – and then disposed of, often in a barbaric fashion. Even if you take the literal "eye for an eye" death penalty approach, I would not be surprised if that would have been an applicable punishment in only an infinitesimal number of cases. People were lynched for stealing, people were lynched for "insubordination," people were lynched for literally being in the wrong place at the wrong time. And let us not be cowards and leave out the racism debacle that lingers to this day. So another reason for giving voice to these past atrocities is in the same vein of "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

As a family historian, I am saddened to think (1) these revolting deeds took place, and (2) while statistics are easy to find, the names and stories of the individual victims are much harder to locate. A list of lynching victims will unfortunately never be complete. I hope that in a small way, posts such as these will serve as a memorial to those who were victims of Judge Lynch and his frightful law.

Mayor of Griffin, Georgia Said He Would Have Helped to Hang Him

Oscar Williams was lynched at Griffin, Spalding County, Georgia in the summer of 1897.  A Bibb County sheriff was actually supposed to transport Oscar to Atlanta (unharmed, of course), but he failed at his duty.  Yet the county was apparently so proud of the part played in the unfortunate ordeal they devoted 5 newspaper columns across 2 pages – plus an illustration – to conveying the whole story.  The title of the article was Hemp and Lead.  Illustration below.

One line from the above referenced article that stood out to me was this: A mob recognizes no law.  Here's a shorter rendition of what happened to Oscar Williams:

Columbus Daily Enquirer (Georgia)
Friday, 23 July 1897 [via GenealogyBank]

OSCAR WILLIAMS HUNG AT GRIFFIN.

Crowd of Citizens Capture the Rapist and Swing Him to a Limb.

HIS BODY FULL OF BULLETS.

Well Known Citizens of Griffin in the Mob, but the Coroner's Jury Declared That the Deceased Came to His Death at Hands of Parties Unknown

Griffin, Ga., July 22. – Oscar Williams, the negro brute who outraged the little five year old daughter of Mr. Campbell, of Henry county on Saturday, July 10th, was lynched here this morning at six o'clock.

Sheriff Herrington, of Bibb county, had Oscar Williams in charge and was on his way to Atlanta where he proposed to turn the prisoner over to the Atlanta jail for safe keeping, but Oscar was compelled to stop over in Griffin and made to pay the penalty of his hellish crime committed just twelve days ago.

On the arrival of the 6:13 Central train a large crowd had gathered at the depot and when the train came to a halt twenty or more determined young men boarded the train and began a search for Williams.  The crowd was met by Sheriff [Herrington] and told that Oscar Williams was not on the train, but the people thought different and made a search that at first looked like the sheriff was giving them the straight tip, but finally Oscar was found concealed in the water closet and very tenderly and carefully taken out, placed in a buggy and driven out Broadway just outside the western city limits, followed by some two hundred men and boys, where he was hanged with a cotton well rope.  The rope was tied in hangman's style and thrown over an oak limb, when Oscar Williams was drawn up five feet above ground.  The other end of the rope was tied to a near by tree, and then five hundred bullets were shot into his body in less than half a minute.  His legs were tied below the knees…and his hands fastened with handcuffs.

It just took twenty minutes from the time the train reached Griffin until the crowd began leaving the dead and mangled body of the brute hanging in the air.

There were no masks worn or any effort made to conceal anything by the determined crowd.

Sheriff Herrington and his deputy saw they were powerless to save their prisoner and after seeing that he had been successfully lynched they returned to Macon on the 9:15 train.

This makes the second negro lynched in Spalding county in less than ten months for outraging young white girls and strange to say both crimes were committed in Henry county.

The Enquirer-Sun's representative failed to ascertain just how the people here knew Oscar Williams was coming through on the early morning train, but as their is a well regulated telephone line down the Central road all the way to Macon the news could have been received that way.  At any rate the news reached here in time for a good crowd to gather to avenge the outrage committed on a poor helpless five year old child.

Mr. Campbell, father of the unfortunate child, reached here before the body was cut down and identified the lynched negro as the brute who committed the crime.  Oscar Williams confessed that he did commit the crime.

At 11 o'clock this morning the body was cut down and there was at once a rapid division of the rope among the spectators.  It was cut into small pieces and distributed as far as it would go.  Some of the men were content with pieces of the dead negro's shirt, trousers or suspenders, and desires were expressed even for pieces of his body for a memento.

Men, women and children, black and white, were gathered about the scene of the lynching all the morning.  The whites were not slow in saying the right thing had been done and the negroes, if they thought differently, very wisely refrained from saying so.

The body, after it was cut down, was carried to the city hall where it was viewed by thousands who came too late to see it swinging.  The negro's relatives at Zebulon have been wired to know if they want the remains.  If not the burial will take place at the county poor farm.

It is an open secret that the lynching was done by some of the best citizens of Griffin.  There have been rumors current that the men who took the law into their own hands were farmers, but the facts do not support this.  Eye witnesses to the whole affair say confidently that in the mob there were not a half dozen men live outside the city.

The verdict of the jury empannelled [sic] by Coroner Williams was as follows:

"We the jury empannelled [sic] to inquire into the cause of the death of Oscar Williams, find that he came to his death by hanging and shooting at the hands of parties to us unknown…"

Mayor W. D. Davis, of Griffin, when asked about the lyncing [sic], said:

"Under my path of office, if it had occurred in the city limits, I would have done all I could to protect the negro.  I was in bed at the time, but if I had known it was outside the city limits I would have helped to hang him."

Sheriff M. M. Morris had no expression of regret to make…

According to MonroeWorkToday, the lynching of Oscar Williams is referenced in A Festival of Violence: An Analysis of Southern Lynchings, 1882-1930 and Fitzhugh Brundage's Lynching in the New South: Georgia and Virginia, 1880-1930.

Article referenced at top may be viewed online here >>> Georgia Historic Newspapers

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A simple search on Google will give you the statistics. The Tuskegee Institute kept track of lynchings in America from 1882 - 1968. There were 581 in Mississippi, 531 in Georgia, 493 in Texas, 391 in Louisiana, 347 in Alabama, and so on. Total from all states: 4,743. That's more than one lynching and victim a week.

I feel a little like I should try to explain why I would give the horrible acts – those committed by the criminal, as well as those committed on the criminal – voice on this blog. There are no (at least to my knowledge) statistics showing the accuracy of the lynchers. How many times was an innocent person hung, riddled with bullets, and mutilated in the name of "justice?" I mean, we probably agree there are innocent people sitting in jail right now – with supposed checks and balances in place. Imagine when there were none. Shouldn't those innocent people be remembered?

Now, make no mistake, sometimes the lynching party "punished" the right person. As in, sometimes the true perpetrator was indeed apprehended – and then disposed of, often in a barbaric fashion. Even if you take the literal "eye for an eye" death penalty approach, I would not be surprised if that would have been an applicable punishment in only an infinitesimal number of cases. People were lynched for stealing, people were lynched for "insubordination," people were lynched for literally being in the wrong place at the wrong time. And let us not be cowards and leave out the racism debacle that lingers to this day. So another reason for giving voice to these past atrocities is in the same vein of "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

As a family historian, I am saddened to think (1) these revolting deeds took place, and (2) while statistics are easy to find, the names and stories of the individual victims are much harder to locate. A list of lynching victims will unfortunately never be complete. I hope that in a small way, posts such as these will serve as a memorial to those who were victims of Judge Lynch and his frightful law.

Blood at the Root: a Racial Cleansing in America (Book Review)

Title:  Blood at the Root: a Racial Cleansing in America
Author: Patrick Phillips
Publication: 2016, W. W. Norton Company
Hardcover noted as having 320 pages. I read the Kindle edition.
Short Synopsis: In the fall of 1912, the entire African American community of Forsyth County, Georgia was literally run out of and banished from the county by the white population. An all-white county remained for decades, even close to a century. The book explores why and how this happened. It's a dark read, but one that is important (I believe) for the citizens of the United States, even to this day.

What Happened

In early September 1912, nineteen-year-old Mae Crow, who had been missing, was found in the woods of Forsyth County, Georgia.  This daughter of well-known citizens of Oscarville, Leonidas Alonzo and Azzie Jane Bennett Crow, had been savagely beaten and left for dead.

The next day, the Forsyth County sheriff arrested three young African Americans:  Rob Edwards, age 24; Oscar Daniel, age 18; and Ernest Knox, age 16.  Rob Edwards didn't stand a chance.  He was almost immediately lynched – killed without due process.

Image by B. McDowell
via FindAGrave

On 23 September 1912, Mae Crow – "one of the most beautiful girls in all of Forsyth" – died from her injuries.  When nightfall came after her funeral, "all hell broke loose in Forsyth County." Groups of white men on horseback – night riders – went into the African American community and told them to get out of the county, "or stay and die like Rob Edwards." The night riders used whatever means were necessary, including "posted notices, scrawled letters, rifles, torches, and sticks of dynamite."

By the end of October, the night riders had forced out all but a handful of the 1,098 members of the African American community – who left in their wake abandoned homes and schools, stores and livestock, and harvest-ready crops standing in the fields.

A contemporaneous Georgia newspaper article (19 October 1912 Savannah Tribune) stated this:

Trouble Brewing In Hill Country 

CLASH OF RACES FEARED IN NORTHEAST GEORGIA

          Many Blacks Are Being Driven Away by Angry Whites…

Gainesville, Ga., October 13. – (Special) – Resulting from the recent reign of terror in Forsyth county, racial hostilities have broken out in northeast Georgia that threaten to become as serious as conditions during the period which followed the close of the civil war…

GAINESVILLE INVADED BY NEGROES
Gainesville is being invaded as a haven of refuge by hordes of Negroes from Forsyth and neighboring counties, who have been driven from their homes by indignant whites.  The Negro sections of the city have been flooded with safety-seeking Negroes, and scores of shanties and dwelling houses shelter as many as six or more families.

All roads entering Gainesville from the southeast are flanked by improvised camps, sheltering the fleeing blacks and many families are forced to live temporarily in the wagons in which the fled from their homes…

Anonymous letters have been sent almost every planter in the hill country, demanding the dismissal of all Negro laborers, and their ejection from the premises.  Most of these missives threaten arson and dynamiting of the houses in which the Negroes live as penalty for disobeyance [sic].  In many instances, mobs of whites appeared at the Negro homes on farms and openly demanded evacuation of the shacks and shanties…

And this from the west coast (5 November 1912 Riverside, California Independent Enterprise):

NEGROES LEAVE GEORGIA

Driven Out by Whites Because of Recent Outrages

CUMMINGS, [sic] Ga., Nov. 4. – Because of recent outrages alleged to have been committed on white women by negroes in Forsyth county, many negroes have been driven out of that district, regardless of their standing, good, bad or indifferent…Hundreds have already gone and others are departing, among them many peaceable, hard-working blacks, some of whom own land.  Not only have the negroes been warned, but leading white farmers have been given notice that their houses and barns would be burned or dynamited if they did not get rid of their negro tenants and laborers…

Meanwhile, the two African American teenagers accused of killing Mae Crow had been taken to Atlanta for safekeeping.  Oscar Daniel and Ernest Knox were given a trial in Forsyth County – it lasted a single day.  The two were convicted and sentenced to hang.  Georgia law of the time stated executions were to be private events.  But this happened:

Augusta Chronicle (Georgia)
26 October 1912 [via GenealogyBank]

FENCE WAS BURNED TO SEE A HANGING

Three Thousand People Crowded the Hillsides, Back of Militia, at Cumming Yesterday…

Not Enough Negroes Left in That Part of Forsyth County to Arrange a Funeral – Gallows Yard Turned Into Open Space by Crowd of People.

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Cumming, Ga., Oct. 25. -- After a mob of citizens burned a fence erected about the gallows, more than 2,000 persons witnessed the hanging today of Ernest Knox and Oscar Daniels, convicted negroes, on a charge of assaulting and causing the death of a white girl. Militia from Atlanta were on guard for the third time in six weeks to preserve order.

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Special to The Chronicle.
Cumming, Ga., Oct. 25. – Amid the cheers of thousands of spectators, gathered about a hollow square, 200 yards from the gallows, Oscar Daniels and Ernest Knox, negroes, paid the death penalty here today for assaulting and causing the death of a young white woman near Cumming, in Forsyth County, September 8th, less than seven weeks ago.  They were convicted three weeks ago yesterday.

Militia Criticized.
The failure of the state militia at Cumming to enforce the state law providing the private executions was criticized by state officials today, who declared the hanging should have been delayed until another fence could have been erected in place of the one burned by the citizens just before the arrival of the troops…

The double trap was sprung by Sheriff W. W. Reid at 11:19 o'clock, and twenty minutes later the two bodies were cut down and placed in a single pine box to be buried by the county as criminal paupers this afternoon.  They will not be accorded a funeral by members of their own race, as there are practically no negroes left in Forsyth County, and the few remaining are afraid to venture out on such a mission…

Only…attendants, county officers, newspaper representatives, members of the dead girl's family and soldiers were permitted within the 200-yard area.  Two companies of Atlanta militiamen formed a dead-line and kept the thousands of morbidly curious – men, women and children – out of reach of the scaffold.  But they were satisfied to stand on the surrounding hillsides and view the spectacle from a distance.  Estimates of the crowd vary, but it is not exaggerating to state that no less than 3,000 persons assembled here – the first legal execution in Forsyth County in more than half a century…

Gallows Fence Burned.
Efforts of county officials to have the hangings conducted privately, as required by law, were futile.  Because of the smallness of the jail, which would not permit the erection of a gallows, within the structure, a wooden scaffold was constructed in a field a half mile from the courthouse.  This was surrounded by a fence fifteen feet high, forming an inclosure [sic] about thirty feet square.

About midnight a mob went to the site of the scaffold, tore down the high fence and made a monster bonfire of the lumber and timbers.  This morning only a heap of charred embers was left of what had been the fence.  The scaffold was not molested.

Ordinary H. V. Jones early this morning ordered the fence rebuilt, but when he undertook to secure lumber with which to rebuild it, not a dealer in town could be found who would sell the material…

A year after the executions, Forsyth County still maintained its all-white status.  An article in Georgia's Marietta Journal dated 24 October 1913 stated the following:

It may be that Hon. Henry L. Patterson [of Cumming], judge of the superior court of the Blue Ridge Circuit, will remove with his family to Marietta some time soon…

Judge Patterson, so it is said, is to leave Cumming because it is impossible to secure house servants since the negroes have all been run out of the county.  Last year the anti-negro crusaders banished the colored people from Forsyth as St. Patrick banished the snakes from Ireland.  There is not a negro left to remind the people that there is a continent of Africa…

National attention was gained again after nearly two more years passed:

Trenton Evening Times (New Jersey)
28 August 1915 [via GenealogyBank]

GEORGIA COUNTY EXILES NEGROES
ATLANTA, Ga., Aug. 28. – As a result of trouble in Forsyth County and in the neighboring territory between whites and blacks, all negroes have been barred from entering the county.  This was brought out clearly by the experience of Hudson Moore, a prominent resident of Atlanta, who went to Cummings [sic] on legal business and took along with him a negro nurse and negro chauffeur.  While he was in the court house he heard a commotion outside, and hurrying out he found a crowd of several hundred gathered around the two negroes threatening them with dire vengeance if they did not leave the county at once.  Moore at once intervened, and after a talk with the crowd he took the two negroes in his automobile and hurried them out of the county, a distance of fifteen miles, and left them there while he returned to complete his business.

While more articles exist that could be cited, I imagine the newspapers stopped reporting at some point.

75 years later, a national renewed interest in the whiteness of Forsyth County, Georgia was born.  Two "Brotherhood" marches took place there in January 1987.  The first was stopped short of its goal due to such resistance (vile hatred) by the people of the county, as well as an underwhelming police presence.  The second, also known as the "Freedom" march, and even more prominent than the first, was a success (to the degree the marchers could say it was completed).  Among the leaders of the procession were famed Civil Rights activists such as Hosea Williams and Rev. Jesse Jackson, and Coretta Scott King, widow of Martin Luther King, Jr.

What even more people of my generation likely remember, however, was the visit to Forsyth County by Oprah Winfrey.  She took her young show there the month after the Brotherhood and Freedom marches.  The white nationalists and racists were on display for all the world to see.  And I would be surprised if any of them were around in the time of the death of young Mae Crow.

Patrick Phillips, the author of Blood at the Root: a Racial Cleansing in America, arrived at Cumming as a school-aged boy in the 1970s.  I dare say he was raised a bit differently than many (most?) of his fellow county residents.  In fact, his parents fought for awareness and change by marching on the side of Brotherhood and Freedom in 1987.

PBS News Hour spoke with Mr. Phillips in January 2017.  One thing he said stood out to me – "…sometimes the gains of one generation are given back in the next."

That same report shared this final fact:  "The population of Forsyth County, Georgia is less than 4% black.  In 2000, it was less than 1% black."

A few passages from the book I took note of and highlighted:

• Southern trees bear strange fruit, Blood on the leaves and blood at the root. – Lewis Allan, 1937
• In 1907, W. E. B. Du Bois had put into words what every "colored" person in Georgia knew from experience, which was that "the police system of the South was primarily designed to control slaves…And tacitly assumed that every white man was ipso facto a member of that police."
• But of all their methods, torches and kerosene worked best, since a fire created a blazing sign for all to see and left the victims with no place to ever come back to.
• Having such a man in the White House emboldened white supremacists across the nation and particularly in the South, which [President Woodrow] Wilson had once called home.

Highly recommended.

Swift Vengeance Served on John Smith of Laurens County, Georgia

The main reason I wish to share the following newspaper article is it contains the name of the subject's father.  Especially with African American research – even after emancipation – this information is not always easy to come by.  The intent is not to gratuitously disparage Mr. Smith.

But first, a suggestion on newspapers as a source as they pertain to accounts of lynchings – especially in the South.  Basically, be aware and verify when possible.  Be aware of the time and context.  White newspapers, generally speaking, were biased in favor of white people (oftentimes the alleged wronged party).  Fitzhugh Brundage, in Lynching in the New South, writes this:

For all of the information that newspaper accounts provide, their serious limitations also must be recognized.  Because the majority of extant newspapers from the period are white newspapers, they reflect the harsh racial attitudes of the day, and their accounts of lynchings, the alleged crimes that prompted lynchings, and the portrayals of mob victims must be treated with great caution…[W]hite descriptions of both the alleged offenses and the character of lynching victims cannot be accepted without question.

On to the article.

Macon Weekly Telegraph (Georgia)
Friday, 29 July 1881 – pg. 2 [via GenealogyBank]

SWIFT VENGEANCE ON A BLACK SCOUNDREL IN LAURENS COUNTY. – We find the following in the Dublin Post:

On last Monday night, Mr. R. T. Dominy was absent from home on an all night's fishing excursion, having left his young wife and little children with no other protection than that of his wife's mother, Mrs. Colley.  About midnight, after the family had been asleep for some time, Mrs. Dominy felt some one touch her foot.  But she was so overcome by drowsiness that she could not rouse herself at first.  But presently she felt a hand upon her so plainly that she called her mother, whereupon she heard the party crawl under her bed.  She asked her mother to get up and look after one of her children, pretending that she did not know that an intruder was in the house.  When the mother appeared with the lamp she beckoned her to the bedside and whispered that some one was under the bed.  Mrs. Colley was incredulous at first, but finally looked, when there met her horror-struck gaze a buck negro with no garment on but a shirt, holding some of the baby's clothing over his face, it is supposed to escape detection.  She screamed to him to get out, which he did in hot haste and ran off a short distance, but then returned to get his pants which had been left at the outside of the window.  The sequel renders it impossible to get those who know most to talk much, but from all we can gather we are perfectly satisfied that a few cool men of good judgement set their wits to work to find out the guilty negro.  From the tracks and from what the ladies could tell and other testimony they satisfied themselves that John Smith, alias John Cellam, a bad negro about twenty years of age, living with his father, Henry Smith, on the Fisher place near Mr. Dominy's, was the one they wanted.  They did nothing hastily or rashly, but took two days to investigate.  On Thursday night about midnight they went to Henry's house, called him up and asked for John.  Henry told them he was sleeping in the shed room.  They thundered at the door but failed to rouse him, so they broke down the door and shot him to death before he waked.

A simple search on Google will give you the statistics. The Tuskegee Institute kept track of lynchings in America from 1882 - 1968. There were 581 in Mississippi, 531 in Georgia, 493 in Texas, 391 in Louisiana, 347 in Alabama, and so on. Total from all states: 4,743. That's more than one lynching and victim a week.

I feel a little like I should try to explain why I would give the horrible acts – those committed by the criminal, as well as those committed on the criminal – voice on this blog. There are no (at least to my knowledge) statistics showing the accuracy of the lynchers. How many times was an innocent person hung, riddled with bullets, and mutilated in the name of "justice?" I mean, we probably agree there are innocent people sitting in jail right now – with supposed checks and balances in place. Imagine when there were none. Shouldn't those innocent people be remembered?

Now, make no mistake, sometimes the lynching party "punished" the right person. As in, sometimes the true perpetrator was indeed apprehended – and then disposed of, often in a barbaric fashion. Even if you take the literal "eye for an eye" death penalty approach, I would not be surprised if that would have been an applicable punishment in only an infinitesimal number of cases. People were lynched for stealing, people were lynched for "insubordination," people were lynched for literally being in the wrong place at the wrong time. And let us not be cowards and leave out the racism debacle that lingers to this day. So another reason for giving voice to these past atrocities is in the same vein of "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

As a family historian, I am saddened to think (1) these revolting deeds took place, and (2) while statistics are easy to find, the names and stories of the individual victims are much harder to locate. A list of lynching victims will unfortunately never be complete. I hope that in a small way, posts such as these will serve as a memorial to those who were victims of Judge Lynch and his frightful law.