User:Willowhist/Lynching in the United States

The Midwest
Racial terror lynchings in the Midwest began in the 1830s and continued through the 1940s. As of 2017, the Equal Justice Initiative has documented 341 lynchings of African Americans between 1877 and 1950 outside of the Southern U.S. The majority of these cases happened in Midwestern states, including Missouri (60), Illinois (56), Kansas (19), Indiana (18), and Ohio (15).

Lynchings in the Midwest are often less well known than those in the South. Historian Brent Campney explains this disparity through the myth of racism in the Midwest. White Midwesterners blamed and condemned white Southerners for acts of anti-Black violence and continually claimed to be a more racially liberal region. This narrative obscured the many lynchings that occurred for decades in the Midwest.

White mobs in the Midwest used the threat and act of lynching to discourage Southern Black migrants from settling in their towns after the Civil War. This threat of violence forced many Black residents to settle in urban areas for a greater level of protection. The effects of lynching on the demographics of Midwestern towns can still be seen today. Although the overt acts of large lynch mobs began to wane by the 1930s, lynchings continued well into the 1940s in an underground format. Lynchings did not subside in the Midwest because of a decline in racism among its white residents; rather, new legislation in the first decades of the 20th century gave greater power to police forces to curtail mob activity.

Missouri
Missouri was a border state during the Civil War, so it is a Midwest state with conflicting ties to the North and South. A 2017 report from the Equal Justice Initiative reported that 60 Black people were lynched in the state between 1877 and 1950. These lynchings had profound effects on those living in the state.

An early lynching in the state was committed in 1836 when a mob in St. Louis kidnapped Francis McIntosh and burned him alive.

Several other lynchings were committed throughout the early 20th century. After a mob of 2,000 white men took Thomas Gilyard from a jail in Joplin and lynched him, they proceeded to burn the homes of many Black residents. This event led to an exodus of Black residents from the town, and its effect on housing patterns can still be seen today. The lynching of Horace Duncan, Fred Coker, and Will Allen in 1906 also led to an exodus of Black residents from St. Louis.

Later lynchings also struck fear in Black communities throughout Missouri. The East St. Louis Race Riots in 1917 led to indiscriminate lynchings by white mobs. A mob of thousands burned Raymond Gunn alive in Maryville in 1931. In 1942, a mob in Sikeston kidnapped Cleo Wright from the city jail - where he was already suffering from bullet wounds after being refused treatment at the hospital - dragged him through a Black neighborhood, and lynched him.

Illinois
The Equal Justice Initiative reports that there were 56 racial terror lynchings in Illinois between 1877 and 1950. In 1893, a white mob broke into the local jail in Decatur and, experiencing no resistance from the guards, kidnapped Sam Bush from his cell. They proceeded to lynch him in front of the courthouse. This act of violence was a spectacle lynching because it was done in front of an estimated 1,500 people, and several people collected pieces of the rope after the lynching.

Several lynchings and other acts of anti-Black violence were committed during race riots. These riots started in various towns throughout the early 20th century, from Cairo in 1909 to Cicero in 1951. The first race riot in the state, known as the Springfield Race Riot, occurred in 1908. This riot began after two Black men were moved to another jail, stopping a white mob's planned lynching. Although this lynching did not happen, two other Black men, Scott Burton and William Donegan, were lynched during the riot.

The journalist and activist, Ida B. Wells, lived in Chicago for part of her life. She is well-known for her reporting on lynching, and she is a prominent figure in the history of civil rights activism.

Kansas
Kansas’s statehood began with great controversy over whether it would be a free or slave state. The many violent conflicts of this debate leading up to the Civil War earned the state the nickname “Bleeding Kansas.” After the Civil War, however, racism took hold in the state and Black residents of Kansas faced repeated threats of violence from their white neighbors. These threats resulted in at least 22 racial terror lynchings in the state.

In 1870, a white mob kidnapped George Johnson – with no resistance from the police force holding him – and brutally tortured and lynched him in Atchison. Johnson had accidentally (and non-fatally) hurt a white man while on a hunting trip.

Many of the lynchings in Kansas occurred near the Missouri border, as one of the most well-documented lynchings in the state demonstrates. In 1901, police arrested Fred Alexander, a Black Spanish American war veteran, on accusations of stalking a white woman and killing a different white woman. A mob of thousands in Leavenworth kidnapped Alexander on January 15, and violently lynched him. Another lynching near the border occurred in Pittsburg in 1902 when a white mob continued the work of a nearby mob in Pierce City, MO, that lynched three members of the Godley family. After accusing Mumpford Godley of killing a police officer, the Pittsburg mob captured and lynched him. In response, Godley’s father filed a lawsuit for $10,000 against the city and received $400 in the settlement, a small but notable victory.

Indiana
Between 1865 and 1950, there were 18 documented racial terror lynchings in Indiana. However, anti-Black violence in the state began well before 1865 with the first documented case of a white mob killing a Black man, John Tucker, occurring on July 4, 1845, in Indianapolis. At the end of the Civil War, many Southern African Americans fled to northern states, like Indiana, causing tensions with white residents and leading to several lynchings throughout the Reconstruction Era, especially along the Ohio River.

In 1865, a white mob lynched two Black men in Evansville soon followed in 1866 with the lynching of Bob O’Neal, a formerly enslaved man and veteran of the Union Army, in Seymour. The 1870s witnessed two mass lynchings. In Charlestown in 1871, the brutal murder of a local family led to accusations against three Black men – George Johnson, Squire Taylor, and Charles Davis – and their lynchings at the hands of a large mob. Then, in 1878, the largest lynching incident in Indiana occurred in Posey County when a mob of hundreds of white residents lynched five Black men: Jim Good, William Chambers, Edward Warner, Jeff Hopkins, and Dan Harris, Sr.

Throughout the rest of the nineteenth-century, several other isolated lynchings occurred throughout the state including William Keemer (Greenfield, 1875), George Scott (Brazil, 1880), Holly Epps (Vincennes, 1886), and Eli Ladd (Blountsville, 1890). At the turn of the century, a series of lynchings occurred in quick succession. In 1900, a mob kidnapped and lynched Bud Rowland and Jim Henderson in Rockport. The next day, the mob moved to nearby Boonville and did the same to Joe Holly. All three men were accused of murdering a local white barber. A year later, a white mob in Terre Haute lynched George Ward after he was accused of killing a white school teacher. Finally, in 1902 a mob of farmers in Sullivan County lynched James Dillard who was accused of assaulting two white women.

After 1902, the state seemed to experience a decline in anti-Black violence; however, underground lynchings that historians are just starting to uncover still occurred. Most notably, in 1922 George Tompkins was lynched in Indianapolis. The final, and most well-documented, lynching in Indiana occurred in Marion in 1930 when a large white mob lynched Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith.

Ohio
According to the Equal Justice Initiative, 15 racial terror lynchings occurred in Ohio between 1877 and 1950. An early lynching in the state was committed in 1878 when a mob kidnapped William Taylor while he was being taken to Norwalk by the sheriff and lynched him twice. According to professor Barbara Alice Mann, the introduction of new voting rights for Black people catalyzed more lynching attempts, especially in 1894. During the course of that year, mobs lynched Roscoe Parker (North Liberty) and Seymour Newlin (Rushsylvania) and attempted to lynch Jasper Colby (Washington), Benjamin Ward (Newark), and Charles O'Neill.

The Springfield Riots of 1904 and 1906 began when mobs broke into jails to lynch people. The mobs were able to kidnap Richard Dixon from the jail and lynch him in 1904. In 1906, people were moved from the jail prior to the break-in, preventing further lynchings

Minnesota
Four lynchings are included in a book of 12 case studies of the prosecution of homicides in the early years of statehood of Minnesota. In 1858 the institutions of justice in the new state, such as jails, were scarce and the lynching of Charles J. Reinhart at Lexington on December 19 was not prosecuted. The following year, the lynching of Oscar Jackson at Minnehaha Falls on April 25 resulted in a later charging of Aymer Moore for the homicide.

In 1866 when Alexander Campbell and George Liscomb were lynched at Mankato on Christmas Day, the state returned an indictment of John Gut on September 18 the following year. And in 1872 when Bobolink, a Native American, was accused and imprisoned pending trial in Saint Paul, the state avoided his lynching despite a public outcry against Natives.

In 1920, six Black workers from a traveling circus were arrested in Duluth after being accused of raping a white girl. A mob formed at the jail, and this mob eventually broke into the jail, kidnapped three of the men - Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson, and Isaac McGhie - and lynched them. After the lynching, no members of the mob were convicted of murder. A memorial for the lynching victims was constructed in 2003.