Mary Turner (1899-1918)

September 22, 2015 
/ Contributed By: Euell A. Dixon

Mary Turner Historic Marker

Mary Turner Historic Marker

Photo by Michael Rivera (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Mary Turner was a young African American woman whose 1918 lynching in Lowndes County, Georgia, prompted National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) officials to ask Missouri Congressman Leonidas Dyer to craft the 1922 Dyer Anti Lynching Bill.ย  The bill passed the U.S. House of Representatives but never became the law of the land because it failed repeatedly in the U.S. Senate because of opposition from Southern Democratic Senators.

Turner was born Mary Hattie Graham in December 1899. Her parents, Perry Graham and wife Elizabeth โ€œBetsyโ€ Johnson were a sharecropping family with four children.ย  On February 11, 1917, 17 year old Graham married Hazel โ€œHayesโ€ Turner in Colquitt County, Georgia.ย  The couple had two children, Ocie Lee and Leaster, before they were married.

Together they moved to Brooks County, Georgia, where they took jobs with plantation owner Hampton Smith.ย  Smith was known for abusing and beating his workers, and for bailing people out of jail and having them work off their debt in his fields. Mary Turner was once severely beaten by Smith and when her husband threatened him, local authorities sentenced Hazel Turner to time on a chain gang.

On the evening of May 16, 1918, Smith was shot and killed by one of his workers.ย  The following week Brooks County saw a mob driven manhunt which resulted in the lynching of 13 people including some who were in the local jail.

Nineteen year old and eight months pregnant Turner publicly denied that her husband had anything to do with the murder of Hampton Smith. He had been arrested among others on the farm. Her remarks further enraged the locals, and the mob turned on her, determined to โ€œteach her a lesson.โ€

Upon hearing the news Turner fled but was caught the next day, May 19. A mob of several hundred people dragged her to Folsom Bridge, over the Little River, which separated Brooks and Lowndes counties. The mob tied her ankles, strung her upside down, doused her clothes in gasoline and set her on fire. While she was still alive, someone split open her stomach and her unborn baby slid out and fell to the ground. The mob stomped and crushed the baby to death. Turnerโ€™s body was riddled with hundreds of bullets. Later that night, the remains of Turner and her baby were buried a few feet away from where they were murdered.

Three days later, the murderer of plantation owner Hampton Smith was caught, and killed in a shootout with police. During the week long rampage, more than 500 African Americans fled from Brooks and Lowndes counties in fear of their lives from the angry mobs.

Although local officials were given names of instigators and 15 specific participants, no one was ever charged or convicted of the murders. A historical marker memorializing Turner was placed near the lynching site and dedicated on May 15, 2010.

About the Author

Author Profile

Multiple business owner Euell Dixon (formerly Nielsen) was born on November 3, 1973, in Sewell, New Jersey. The youngest daughter of scientist and author Eustace A. Dixon II and Travel Agent Eleanor Forman, Euell was an early reader and began tutoring at The Verbena Ferguson Tutoring Center for Adults at the age of 13. She has owned and operated five different companies in the past 20 years including Show and Touch, Stitch This, Get Twisted, Dimaje Photography, and Island Treazures.

Euell is a Veteran of the U.S. Army (Reserves) and a member of the Order of Eastern Star, House of Zeresh #103. She is also the 3rd Historian for First African Presbyterian Church, the nationโ€™s oldest African American Presbyterian church, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Additionally, Euell is also a photographer, storyteller, fiber artist, and a historical re-enactor, portraying the lives of Patriot Hannah Till, Elizabeth Gloucester, and Henrietta Duterte. Euell has been writing for Blackpast.org since 2014 and was given an award from the site in 2016 for being the only African American female who had almost 100 entries at the time. Since then, she has written over 300 entries. Euell currently lives in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands.

CITE THIS ENTRY IN APA FORMAT:

Dixon, E. (2015, September 22). Mary Turner (1899-1918). BlackPast.org. https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/mary-turner-1899-1918/

Source of the Author's Information:

Julie Bruckner Armstrong, Mary Turner and the Memory of a Lynching (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2011); Kara Ramos, โ€œRemembering a dark page of history,โ€ Valdosta Daily Times, May 15, 2010; Frank Walts, โ€œThe work of a Mob,โ€ The Crisis (September 1918).

Further Reading