Joel Woodson of Omaha, Nebraska was lynched by a mob in Green River, Wyoming on December 10, 1918 at the Union Pacific Railroad yard. He had come to Green River for work three months earlier, leaving his wife and family in Omaha. Woodson was an … Read MoreJoel Woodson (?-1918)
Wade Hampton was a Wyoming lynching victim. He was taken from the Rock Springs city jail by three men who attempted to hang him. When the hanging was unsuccessful, Hampton was shot to death on December 14, 1917, shortly after midnight. We know little about … Read MoreWade Hampton (?-1917)
Empire, Wyoming was an African American community founded in 1908 by Charles and Rosetta Speese along with three of Charles’ brothers—John, Joseph and Radford—and their families. John’s brother-in-law, Baseman Taylor, and relative, Otis Taylor, also joined the settlement. The families migrated from Nebraska. With the … Read MoreEmpire, Wyoming (1908-1930)
Joseph (Joe) Martin, an African American man, was lynched by a mob of three hundred white men in Laramie, Wyoming on August 29, 1904. The Cheyenne Daily Leader headline read, “Joe Martin Taken from Jail After Desperate Battle and Hanged to Telegraph Pole.” Martin was … Read MoreJoseph (Joe) Martin (?-1904)
Joe Coe, whose official name was George Smith, was an African-American man who lived in Omaha, Nebraska. Coe was a married father of two children and worked as a porter at a railroad company. Coe resided on North 12th Street, which was north of downtown … Read MoreThe Lynching of Joe Coe, 1891
By the 1920s lynchings of African Americans had become a standard practice across the nation. The multiple lynchings in Duluth, Minnesota, however, represent the farthest north this practice reached. The John Robinson Circus made its way to Duluth on June 14, 1920, for a parade and one-day performance. … Read MoreThe Duluth Lynchings (1920)
On the morning of May 15, 1916, approximately 15,000 people gathered near Waco, Texas to witness the trial and lynching of Jesse Washington, an eighteen-year-old black man charged with the bludgeoning death of Lucy Fryer. The brutal murder of Washington provided the newly formed National Association for the Advancement of Colored People … Read MoreJesse Washington (1897-1916)
On August 7, 1930, a mob of ten to fifteen thousand whites abducted three young black men from the jail in Marion, Indiana, lynching Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith. Sixteen-year-old James Cameron narrowly survived after being beaten by the mob. Lawrence Beitler’s photograph of the two victims’ hanging bodies … Read MoreMarion, Indiana Lynching (1930)
James Byrd, Jr. is considered one of the last lynching victims in the United States. On the morning of June 7, 1998, 49-year-old Byrd left his parents’ residence and was walking home alone along Huff Creek Road in Jasper, Texas. He was approached by three white men, John William … Read MoreJames Byrd, Jr. (1949-1998)
On Thursday, March 3, 1910, a Dallas, Texas mob lynched Allen Brooks, a fifty-seven-year-old African American man. His murder was one of a number of lynchings in major Texas cities. Little is known about Brooks’s early life. He was born in either Maryland or Texas around 1853. By the … Read MoreAllen Brooks (ca. 1853-1910)
