The lynching of Laura Nelson
(partial list)
Printed as a community service by Dr. Daniel Meaders, Professor of History at William Patterson University, and author of several books and articles, including Dead or Alive, Fugitive Slaves and White Indentured Servants Before 1800 (Garland Press, 1993)
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Jennie Steers
On July 25, 1903 a mob lynched Jennie Steers on the Beard Plantation in Louisiana for supposedly giving a white teenager, 16 year-old Elizabeth Dolan, a glass of poisoned lemonade. Before they killed her, the mob tried to force her to confess but she refused and was hanged. (100 Years at Lynching. Ralph Ginzburg)
Laura Nelson
Laura Nelson was lynched on May 23, 1911 In Okemah, Okluskee, Oklahoma. Her fifteen year old son was also lynched at the same time but I could not find a photo of her son. The photograph of Nelson was drawn from a postcard. Authorities accused her of killing a deputy sheriff who supposedly stumbled on some stolen goods in her house. Why they lynched her child is a mystery. The mob raped and dragged Nelson six miles to the Canadian River and hanged her from a bridge.(NAACP: One Hundred Years of Lynching in the US 1889-1918 )
Ann Barksdale or Ann Bostwick
The lynchers maintained that Ann Barksdale or Ann Bostwlck killed her female employer in Pinehurst, Georgia on June 24, 1912. Nobody knows if or why Barksdale or Bostick killed her employer because there was no trial and no one thought to take a statement from this Black woman who authorities claimed had ”violent fits of insanity” and should have been placed in a hospital. Nobody was arrested and the crowd was In a festive mood. Placed in a car with a rope around her neck, and the other end tied to a tree limb, the lynchers drove at high speed and she was strangled to death. For good measure the mob shot her eyes out and shot enough bullets Into her body that she was “cut in two.”
Marie Scott
March 31, 1914, a white mob of at least a dozen males, yanked seventeen year-old Marie Scott from jail, threw a rope over her head as she screamed and hanged her from a telephone pole in Wagoner County, Oklahoma. What happened? Two drunken white men barged Into her house as she was dressing. They locked themselves in her room and criminally “assaulted” her. Her brother apparently heard her screams for help, kicked down the door, killed one assailant and fled. Some accounts state that the assailant was stabbed. Frustrated by their inability to lynch Marie Scott’s brother the mob lynched Marie Scott. (Crisis 1914 and 100 Years of Lynching)
Mary Turner 1918 Eight Months Pregnant
Mobs lynched Mary Turner on May 17, 1918 in Lowndes County. Georgia because she vowed to have those responsible for killing her husband arrested. Her husband was arrested in connection with the shooting and killing Hampton Smith, a white farmer for whom the couple had worked, and wounding his wife. Sidney Johnson. a Black, apparently killed Smith because he was tired of the farmer’s abuse. Unable to find Johnson. the killers lynched eight other Blacks Including Hayes Turner and his wife Mary. The mob hanged Mary by her feet, poured gasoline and oil on her and set fire to her body. One white man sliced her open and Mrs. Turner’s baby tumbled to the ground with a “little cry” and the mob stomped the baby to death and sprayed bullets into Mary Turner. (NAACP: Thirty Years of Lynching in the U.S. 1889-1918 )
Maggie Howze and Alma Howze -Both Pregnant
Accused of the murder of Dr. E.L. Johnston in December 1918. Whites lynched Andrew Clark, age 15, Major Clark, age 20, Maggie Howze, age 20, and Alma Howze, age 16 from a bridge near Shutaba, a town in Mississippi. The local press described Johnston as being a wealthy dentist, but he did not have an established business in the true sense of the word. He sought patients by riding his buggy throughout the community offering his services to the public at large in Alabama. Unable to make money “peddling” dentistry, the dentist returned to Mississippi to work on his father’s land near Shabuta. During his travels he had developed an intimate relationship with Maggie Howze. a Black woman who he had asked to move and lived with him. He also asked that she bring her sister Alma Howze along. While using the Black young women as sexual objects Johnson impregnated both of them though he was married and had a child. Three Black laborers worked on Johnston’s plantation, two of whom were brothers, Major and Andrew Clark. Major tried to court Maggie, but Johnson was violently opposed to her trying to create a world of her own that did not include him. To block a threat to his sexual fiefdom, Johnston threaten Clark’s life. Shortly after Johnston turned up dead and the finger was pointed at Major Clark and the Howze sisters. The whites picked up Major, his brother, Maggie and her sister and threw them in jail. To extract a confession from Major Clark, the authorities placed his testicles between the “jaws of a vise” and slowly closed it until Clark admitted that he killed Johnston. White community members took the four Blacks out of jail, placed them in an automobile, turned the head lights out and headed to the lynching site. Eighteen other cars, carrying members of the mob, followed close behind. Someone shut the power plant down and the town fell into darkness. Ropes were placed around the necks of the four Blacks and the other ends tied to the girder of the bridge. Maggie Howze cried, “I ain’t guilty of killing the doctor and you oughtn’t to kill me.” Someone took a monkey wrench and “struck her In the mouth with It, knocking her teeth out. She was also hit across the head with the same instrument, cutting a long gash In which the side of a person’s hand could be placed.” While the three other Blacks were killed instantly, Maggie Howze, four months pregnant, managed to grab the side of the bridge to break her fall. She did this twice before she died and the mob joked about how difficult it was to kill that “big Jersey woman.” No one stepped forward to claim the bodies. No one held funeral services for the victims. The Black community demanded that the whites cut them down and bury them because they ‘lynched them.” The whites placed them in unmarked graves.
Alma Howze was on the verge of giving birth when the whites killed her. One witness claimed that at her “burial on the second day following, the movements of her unborn child could be detected.” Keep in mind, Johnston’s parents felt that the Blacks had nothing to do with their son’s death and that some irate white man killed him, knowing that the blame would fall on the Black’s shoulders. The indefatigable Walter White, NAACP secretary, visited the scene of the execution and crafted the report. He pressed Governor Bilbo of Mississippi to look into the lynching and Bilbo told the NAACP to go to hell. (NAACP: Thirty Years of Lynching in the U.S.. 1889-1918 ) (Papers of the NAACP)
Holbert Burnt at the Stake
Luther Holbert, a Black, supposedly killed James Eastland, a wealthy planter and John Carr, a negro, who lived near Doddsville Mississippi. After a hundred mile chase over four days, the mob of more than 1,000 persons caught Luther and his wife and tied them both to trees. They were forced to hold out their hands while one finger at a time was chopped off and their ears were cut off. Pieces of raw quivering flesh was pulled out of their arms, legs and body with a bore screw and kept for souvenirs. Holbert was beaten and his skull fractured. An eye was knocked out with a stick and hung from the socket. (100 Years of Lynching by Ralph Ginzburg)
WHO ARE OUR REAL HEROES?
American mobs lynched some 5.000 Blacks since 1859, scores of whom were women, several of them pregnant. Rarely did the killers spend time in jail because the white mobs and the government officials who protected them believed justice meant (just us) white folks. Lynching denied Blacks the right to a trial or the right to due process. No need for a lawyer and a jury of your peers: the white community decided what happened and what ought to be done. After the whites accused Laura Nelson of killing a white deputy In Oklahoma, they raped this Black woman, tied her to a bridge trestle and for good measure, They lynched her son from a telephone pole. Had the white community reacted in horror after viewing the dangling corpses of Laura Nelson and her son? No, they came by the hundreds, making their way by cars, horse driven wagons, and by foot to view the lynching. Dressed in their Sunday best, holding their children’s hands and hugging their babies the white on-lookers looked forward to witnessing the spectacle of a modern day crucifixion. They snapped pictures of Laura Nelson, placed them on postcards and mailed them to their friends boasting about the execution. They chopped of f the fingers, sliced off the ears of Ms. Holbert, placed the parts In jars of alcohol and displayed them in their windows.
White America today know little or nothing about lynching because it contradicts every value America purports to stand for. Blacks, too, know far too little about the lynchings because the subject is rarely taught in school. Had they known more about these lynchings, I am almost certain that Blacks would have taken anyone to task, including gangster rappers, for calling themselves niggers or calling Black women “hoes” and “bitches.” How could anybody in their right mind call these Black women who were sexually abused, mutilated, tortured and mocked the same degrading Please do not throw this away. Give it to a friend or a names that the psychopathic lynchers called them? relative. Peace.
What Black woman in her right state of mind would snap her fingers or tap her feet toihe beat of a song that contained the same degrading remarks that the whites uttered when they raped and lynched them The lynchers and the thousands of gleeful spectators called these Black women niggers when they captured them, niggers when they placed the rope around their necks and niggers when their necks snapped. Whites viewed Black women as hated black things, for, how else can one explain the treatment of Mary Turner? The lynch mob ignored her cries for mercy, ripped off her clothes, tied her ankles together, turned her upside down, doused her naked body with gas and oil, set her naked body on fire, ripped her baby out of her, stomped the child to death and laughed about it. Blacks purchased Winchesters to protect themselves, staged demonstrations, created anti-lynching organizations, pushed for anti-lynching legislation and published articles and books attacking the extralegal violence. Many pocked up. left the community never to return again. Others went through bouts of sadness, despair, and grief. Some broke down, a few went insane. Others probably fell on their knees, put their hands together, closed their eyes and begged Jesus for help. Jesus help us. Do not forsake us. But Jesus. the same white man the lyncher’s ancestors taught us to love, never flew out of the bush in a flame of fire armed with frogs and files and locusts to save Mary Turner. No thunder, no rain, no hail and no fire blocked the lynchers from hanging Laura Nelson. He did not see the “affliction” of the Holberts; he did not hear the screams of Marie Scott or the cry of Jennifer Steers.
So who are our real heroes?. Little Kim Is not a hero. Oprah is not a hero.. Whoople Goldberg is not a hero. Michael Jordan is not a hero. Dennis Rodman Is not a hero. They are entertainers, sport figures. creations of the media, media icons and they are about making huge sums of money and we wish these enterprising stars well. . Mary Turner, Laura Nelson, Marie Scott and Jennie Steers are your true historical heroes. Niggers they were not. Bitches they were not. Hoes they were not. They will not go down in history for plastering their bodies with tattoos, inventing exotic diets, endorsing Gator Ade, embracing studIo gangsterism, They were strong beautiful Black women who suffered excruciating pain, died horrible deaths. Their legacy of -strength lives on. These are my heroes. Make them yours as well.
Addendum===
Below are women who were lynched in addition to the initial findings of Dr. Daniel Meaders. They can be found in the pages of the book 100 Years of Lynching by Ralph Ginzburg.
Mae Murray Dorsey and Dorothy Malcolm
On July 25, 1946, four young African Americans—George & Mae Murray Dorsey and Roger & Dorothy Malcom—were shot hundreds of times by 12 to 15 unmasked white men in broad daylight at the Moore’s Ford bridge spanning the Apalachee River, 60 miles east of Atlanta, Georgia. These killings, for which no one was ever prosecuted, enraged President Harry Truman and led to historic changes, but were quickly forgotten in Oconee and Walton Counties where they occurred. No one was ever brought to justice for the crime.
Ballie Crutchfield
Around midnight on March 15, 1901 Ballie Crutchfield was taken from her home in Rome to a bridge over Round Lick Creek by a mob. There her hands were tied behind her, and she was shot through the head and then thrown in the creek. Her body was recovered the next day and an inquest found that she met her death at the hands of persons unknown (euphemism for lynching).
After Walter Sampson lost a pocketbook containing $120, it was found by a little boy. As he went to return it to its owner, William Crutchfield, Ballie’s brother, met the boy. Apparently, the boy gave him the pocketbook after being convinced it had no value. Sampson had Crutchfield arrested and taken to the house of one Squire Bains.
A mob came to take Crutchfield for execution. On the way he broke lose and escaped in the dark. The mob was so blind with rage they lay blame on Ballie as a co-conspirator in her brother’s alleged crime and proceeded to enact upon their beliefs culminating in the aforementioned orgy of inhumanity.
Belle Hathaway
At 9 o’clock the night of January 23, 1912 100 men congregated in front of the Hamilton, Georgia courthouse. They then broke into the Harris County Jail. After overpowering Jailor E.M. Robinson they took three men and a woman one mile from town.
Belle Hathaway, John Moore, Eugene Hamming, and “Dusty” Cruthfield were in jail after being charged with the shooting death a farmer named Norman Hadley.
Writhing bodies silhouetted against the sky as revolvers and rifles blazed forth a cacophony of 300 shots at the victims before the mob dispersed.
Sullivan Couple Hung as Deputy Sheriff and Posse Watch
Fred Sullivan and his wife were hanged after being accused of burning a barn on a plantation near Byhalia, Mississippi November 25, 1914. The deputy sheriff and his posse were forced to watch the proceedings.
Cordella Stevenson Raped and Lynched
Wednesday, December 8, 1915 Cordella Stevenson was hung from the limb of a tree without any clothing about fifty yards north of the Mobile and Ohio Railroad outside Columbus, Mississippi. The gruesomely horrific scene was witnessed by thousands and thousands of passengers who traveled in and out of the city the next morning.
She was hung there by a bloodthirsty mob who had taken her from slumber, husband and home to the spot where she was raped and lynched. All this was done after she had been brought to the police station for questioning in connection with the arson of Gabe Frank’s barn. Her son had been suspected of the fire. The police released her after she convinced them her son had left home several months prior and she did not know his whereabouts.
After going to bed early, a knock was heard at the door. Her husband, Arch Stevenson went to answer, but the door was broken down first and his wife was seized. He was threatened with rifle barrels to his head should he move.
The body was left hanging until Friday morning. An inquest returned a verdict of “death at the hands of persons unknown.”
5 Hanged on One Oak Tree
Three men and two women were taken from the jail in Newberry, Florida on August 19, 1916 and hanged by a mob. Another man was shot by deputy sheriffs near Jonesville, Florida. All this was the result of the killing the day prior of Constable S.G. Wynne and the shooting of Dr. L.G. Harris by Boisey Long. Those who were lynched had been accused of aiding Long in his escape.
Mary Conley
After Sam Conley had been reprimanded by E.M. Melvin near Arlington, Georgia, his mother Mary intervened to express her resentment. After Melvin slapped and grappled with her, Sam Conley struck Melvin on the head with an iron scale weight, resulting in his death shortly afterward.
Although Sam escaped, his mother was captured and jailed. She was taken from the jail at Leary and her body was riddled with bullets. Her remains were found along the roadside by parties entering into Arlington the next morning.
Bertha Lowman
Demon Lowman, Bertha Lowman, and their cousin Clarence Lowman were in the Aiken, South Carolina jail when it was raided by a mob early on October 8, 1926. The three had been in jail for a year and a half while they were tried for the murder of Sheriff and Klansman Henry H.H. Howard. Howard was shot in the back while raiding the house of Sam Lowman, father to Bertha and Demon. Klansmen filed by Howard’s body two-by-two when it laid in state. A year after his funeral a cross was burned in the cemetery at his grave.
Although the Lowman’s were tried and sentenced to death, a State Supreme Court reversed the findings and ordered a new trial. Demon had just been found not guilty when the raid on the jail occurred. Taken to a pine thicket just beyond the city limits their bodies were riddled with bullets.
The events which resulted in this lynching are surreal to say the least. Samuel Lowman was away from home at a mill having meal ground on April 25, 1925. Sheriff Howard and three deputies appeared at the Lowman Cabin three miles from Aiken. Annie Lowman, Samuel’s wife and their daughter Bertha were out back of the house working. Their family had never been in any kind of trouble. They did not know the sheriff and he did not know them. Furthermore, they were not wearing any uniform or regalia depicting them as law enforcers. Hence the alarming state of mind they had when four white men entered their yard unannounced, even if it was on a routine whiskey check. It was even more distressing because a group of white men had come to the house a few weeks earlier and whipped Demon for no reason at all. After speaking softly to each other the women decided to go in the house.
When the men saw the women move towards the house they drew their revolvers and rushed forward. Sheriff Howard reached the back step at the same time as Bertha. He struck her in the mouth with his pistol butt. Mrs. Lowman picked up an axe and rushed to her daughter’s aid. A deputy emptied his revolver into the old woman killing her.
Demon and Clarence were working in a nearby field when they heard Bertha’s scream. Demon retrieved a pistol from a shed while Clarence armed himself with a shotgun. The deputies shot at Demon, who returned fire. Clarence’s actions are not clear. When it was all over a few seconds later the Sheriff was dead. Bertha had received two gunshots to the chest just above her heart. Clarence and Demon were wounded also. In total five members of the Lowman family were in put jail.
Samuel Lowman returned to find in his absence he had become a widower with four of his children in jail along with his nephew. In three days he would be charged with harboring illegal liquor when a quarter of a bottle of the substance is found in his backyard. For that the elderly farmer was sentenced to two years on the chain gang.
18 year old Bertha, 22 year old Demon and 15 year old Clarence were tried for the Sheriff’s murder and swiftly found guilty. The men were sentenced to death with Bertha given a life sentence.
Demon’s acquittal made it appear that Clarence and Bertha would been freed as well. The day they were murdered they were taken from the jail, driven to a tourist a few miles from town and set loose. As they ran they were shot down.
Mr. Lowman contended one of the deputies who coveted the Sheriff’s job was his real killer. The same man later led the mob which slew Lowman’s children and nephew. Apparently, he knew they could identify him as the culprit.
Additional information on the lynching of Laura Nelson.
The barefoot corpse of lynched 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.” District Judge Caruthers convened a grand jury in June 1911 to investigate the lynching of the Laura Nelson and her son. In his instructions to the jury, he said, “The people of the state have said by recently adopted constitutional provision that the race to which the unfortunate victims belonged should in large measure be divorced from participation in our political contests, because of their known racial inferiority and their dependent credulity, which very characteristic made them the mere tool of the designing and cunning. It is well known that I heartily concur in this constitutional provision of the people’s will. The more then does the duty devolve upon us of a superior race and of greater intelligence to protect this weaker race from unjustifiable and lawless attacks.”
Information on Laura Nelson’s Lynching
Additional info on Laura Nelson’s Lynching at WithoutSanctuary.org
Laura Nelson and her son hanging from bridge in 1911
Wikipedia article mentioning the lynching
Another blog mentioning the lynching
The Laura Nelson Murder at strangefruit.org
Information from wikipedia on the town of Okemah where Laura Nelson and her son were lynched
Moore’s Ford Memorial Committee, Inc.
Looking behind tragedy at Moore’s Ford bridge
Moore’s Ford Bridge Wikipedia entry
On July 25, 1946, four young African Americans—George & Mae Murray Dorsey and Roger & Dorothy Malcom—were shot hundreds of times by 12 to 15 unmasked white men in broad daylight at the Moore’s Ford bridge spanning the Apalachee River, 60 miles east of Atlanta, Georgia. These killings, for which no one was ever prosecuted, enraged President Harry Truman and led to historic changes, but were quickly forgotten in Oconee and Walton Counties where they occurred. No one was ever brought to justice for the crime.
In 1991, Clinton Adams, a witness to the murders, told his story to the FBI. Only ten years old at the time, Adams had been on the run for 45 years fearing for his life because of what he saw.
In 1992, The Atlanta Constitution finally told Adams’ story and the history of the event. Five years later, the Oconee Enterprise, Walton Tribune, and the Athens Daily News retold the story.
Civil Rights worker Robert Howard of Social Circle, Georgia led four efforts to “do something” about the events at Moore’s ford. Seeds planted by Howard, the Walton County NAACP, and others germinated in the late 1990′s.
In August 1997, a large biracial group of Georgians formed the Moore’s Ford Committee to commemorate the Dorseys and the Malcolms. They incorporated and acquired non-profit status to boost fund raising and create a permanent, living memorial.
The Moore’s Ford Memorial Committee is committed to telling the story, honoring the dead, promoting healing and social justice, and creating a living memorial to the victims of this horrible crime.
Several hundred Georgians searched for the missing graves of the victims. Finding three of four, they worked 25 days to restore two cemetaries. Committee members installed grave monuments inscribed: “May your suffering be redeemed in brotherly Love.” A military service on Memorial Day 1999 honored World War II veteran George Dorsey, killed only nine months after returning from duty in the Pacific.
Songfest, joint church services and covered dish meals built unity among the group and led to many friendships. An art exhibit to promote social justice and racial healing raised public awareness about the killings.
The work of the Moore’s Ford Committee has been recognized by local, regional and national groups working toward healing and reconciliation. Local Baha’is gave MFMC a “Race Unity Award.” The Christian Council of Metropolitan Atlanta credited the group for “Outstanding Work in Human Relations.” In 1998 the President’s Initiative on Race named the Moore’s Ford Memorial Committee a “Promising Practice” that other communities might emulate.
I wrote a response to a 2nd Amendment broadcast email. I used factual historic data about the treatment of Africans enslaved. Southern media outlets NEVER did ANY research to confirm or rebuke my writing. Ain’t that a switch. I guess the Freedom of the Press has been flushed to give jobs to lazy pseudo-journalists.
I once heard in a cowboy movie that “there is nothing so savage on this planet as whites.” How tru this is!
In my opinion humans are the most violent creatures on the planet. We are the only ones who kill for reasons other than to eat or self defense. Then again we do not even need to kill in order to eat. Some of the largest creatures on this planet are vegetarians.
Only humans kill other humans to show that killing is wrong.
Only humans engage in mass wanton slaughter of the most innocent of their kind for reasons other than love.
It is possible that a new era is burgeoning among the human race where such behavior will be a thing of the past. Loving ourselves from the inside out and connecting with others who engage in that behavior likewise is a start.
Martin Luther King, Jr said in his “I Have A Dream Speech” that we must meet physical force with soul force. It is high time we began using soul force again. It was soul force that freed those held captive on plantations when they sang spiritual songs looking forward to a change, not Abraham Lincoln. It was soul force that ended apartheid, abolished Jim Crow, and ended colonialism. When we return to deliberate intentional use of soul force we will be well on our way to ushering in the era when all the generations of humanity can be called blessed.
I once heard in a cowboy movie that “there is nothing more savage on this planet as whites.” How true this is!
I am Irish and we have suffered the same outrages,oppressions and genocidal atrocities from occupiers who shared the same sense of superiority as the white population with some exeptions did. The suffering of the black minority resonates strongly with the injustice we feel. The injustice and helpnessness we feel because of this brutality inflicted by a stronger force. We can never redress the situation which existed through any physical or economic revenge. The best that we can do is to never forget the suffering, enshrine the memory of these oppressed people in our hearts and minds and strive to never again let such a situation exist.
I respect you but Irish people were not forcibly removed from Ireland as slaves. They volunteered to come to america. They volunteered to work. 100 Million of your people were not killed in the slave trade and post slavery conditions. Don’t minimize The Black Holocust with what happen to your people. You Irish are a proud people with a land, lanuage, and culture. We had all that stripped from us.
Joey Joey Joey Joey Joey!!!!
It’s not the same…We had our names removed from us!!! You were from Ireland…you still have your identity…you still have a family name that you can connect to in Ireland!!! It is not just “injustice” but a process of deliberate and intentional dehumanization!!! The 1850 and 1860 United States census’ deliberately left out the names of our ancestors so that they would not be seen as human. What experience did your people have which was intended to conceal their humanity?
It is truly unfortunate that the Irish experienced the oppression you mentioned. However, to suggest it was the same as that of African Americans ignores the work of Joel Ignatiev in his book “How the Irish Became White.” You might want to consider getting a history lesson from it. The idea you have about a shared experience of oppression is diametrically opposed to the truth.
http://books.google.com/books?id=w7ztAAAAMAAJ&dq=editions:pdF54OQuZWsC
Well said. Thank you!!!
And yet blacked marched down America’s streets DEMANDING INTEGRATION into white male society?! Only blacks in all of human history have claimed – with the threat of extreme violence – that another people were the source of their very freedom, dignity, human progress and even their MANHOOD. Bottom line, blacks want to guilt trip white people and in so doing claim white people OWE THEM MONEY.
I will reply on my own behalf, as an African american woman and say to Joey Thank you for your words of empathy and compassion. No, your people did not go through the exact SAME atrocities mine did, but I did finally read the history of the famine in your country and what led to it, the deliberate starvation at the hands of the English, how so many of you died and starved throughout the winters, so I know where you are coming from. There is a story of dozens of Irish men who while working on a railroad line in Pensylvania, fell ill and were not just left to die but buried in a mass grave, forgotten for decades before a few felt their ghosts so keenly, kept digging and helped bring them some peace. Inhumanity is inhumanity, whether for a hundred years or a day. Wish people would remember that…while struggling to remember.
LaDonna is correct in saying the atrocities were not exactly the same. The time line was different, and the Irish, although enslaved, were slowly assimilated into the western culture. Africans are still fighting that battle. Comparing the oppression of the Irish to that of Africans has limits. Both cultures were enslaved. Both cultures worked as slaves on sugar and indigo plantations in The West Indies and Brazil. Today, there are more Irish in Montserrat than Africans. The tropical climate was fatal to many Irish slaves, Africans being physically better suited to work in a hot environment. Sending Irish slaves to the Indies started in the reign of Elizabeth I, and continued through the Stuarts. The rebellion of 1641 saw the population of Ireland reduced by about 35% with war casualties, sickness and exile into slavery. Oliver Cromwell financed his war by getting English ‘adventurers’ to lend money to be repaid by taking ownership of Irish land. Sending Irish slaves abroad ended in the 18th century but Africans continued to be enslaved. well into the 19th century. A better comparison would be between the Irish and the indigenous peoples of the Americas. They were both displaced by English colonists being ‘planted on their land. But then, almost every European nation planted people on African land. All in all, Africans remain the most oppressed culture to this day. Man’s inhumanity to fellow men continues!
wow my last name is howze and all my family are from Alabama and Mississippi
YAA Adding this to my bookmarks. Thank You
The known lynchings and murder of our people are the results of published reports written by the more honest of white peoples with exceptions of course. Many of the documented photographs of victims were taken by participants in their murder. I’ve personally taken interest in this ugly chapter of our history because my great grandparents fled South Carolina in the 1920s as a consequence of Ku Klux Klan terrorist activities. There was a holocaust in this country long before the Jewish holocaust in Eastern and Western Europe. In fact, Hitler acquired his genocidal ideas from the example of white America’s treatment of our people. It’s unfortunate that many whites don’t want to confront this. And it is even more unfortunate that many of our people who witnessed these activities perpetrated against family members and friends failed in their duty to tell their story to their descendants. My great grandparents told me some of their story and I am telling it to my sons.
“Each one teach one.” – Gill Scott Heron
You are so right Baruti. In the case of Eugenics and Genocide America was the first country to consciously apply death to Blacks. Hilter picked it up and moved forward with unheeded. My mother experienced seeing blackmen swinging from trees and my children are well informed. Check out my Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/TheSpiritualSoldier?sk=notes#!/TheSpiritualSoldier
I am planning on publishing a book with as many pictures of hangings I can locate. Yhis book will be about slavery, Lynching, Grand-father clause, Jom Crow and the chain gang. The LORD gave me to kow that the number one weapon against the white man is exposing his evil diabolicalways which are prevalent today.
Is it possible to use some of the information I saw here?
I truly Appreciate everything.
The Prophet
Thank you for your kind considerations, There is much to be done in a very short time. The lesson we must learn and that how to love and appreciate one another and to do these things, we have to get Willy Lynch out of our conscious minds starting immediately.
May GOD continue to bless and keep you safe is my prayeer
The Prophet
Prophet Moseley,
Feel free to use any information you come across. Of course please cite us as a source.
Thank you for sharing your endevor with us. We are hoping for your effortless success.
You are more than welcome Prophet Moseley. We are grateful to be of service. Thank you for your prayers.
“Willie Lynch” is a FICTIONAL character. I wish people would stop mentioning him and/or the “Willie Lynch Letter”.
Even if Willie Lynch is a fictional character, the Willie Lynch letter is an accurate portrayal of the human condition. Just as Niccolo Machiavelli’s “The Prince” sets out a political philosophy, the Willie Lynch letter describes social philosophy which has been applied for at least three hundred years. WHOEVER wrote the “Willie Lynch Letter” was clear as to the use of a divide and conquer strategy for social control. As a side note, the Willie Lynch Letter states:
“IT WILL CONTROL THE SLAVES FOR AT LEAST 300 HUNDREDS YEARS…”
Three Hundred years since 1712 will end in 2012.
I am Puertorican, and hold black people in the US close to my heart. However, do our young men and women hold themselves close? I ask because black on black crime in america far exceeds any other crime. So much blacks suffered and the young forget. you are right; who they hold as heroes are not. Most black heroes are already dead. and even though we have a black president, I wonder how much is he manipulated in his presidency and does he have a real plan for us all?.Your work is incredible an deeply appreciated. All those innocents that died I am sure now have mansions in heaven and God has not forgotten them. thank you…
The behavior which is documented here is the reason the young men and women you describe behave the way they do.
You are welcome. We are grateful to know this service is valued and appreciated.
Wow its a shame that all our people went and r going thru is only made worst by our behavior. We r killing ourselves over less than some of these poor souls. Thx 4 the wake up I needed this to motivate me to encourage my kids to get this kind of knowledge.
“However, do our young men and women hold themselves close?” C Jones, now THAT is the 400 year old question! You made great points in that single statement and as a Black man it is hard to see WHAT the youth values to be honest. We learned to aspire to have a better standard of living but we haven’t evolved into understanding that it is not taken by the use of a gun or drugs it is earned by hard work and sacrifice! The younger men and women who have earned a little money has taken it an used it to flaunt their wealth in BS like clothes, jewelry and cars and meanwhile their bank account is depleting because they are not well informed enough to take money and make money. I could go on for days but the truth is if one does not do something to help then they are just as guilty of the issue. Anyone can complain and Monday morning quarterback so I try talking to the young men that I come into contact with to give them another way to look at themselves. I say without hesitation, it is a challenge because most of our youth is being given their values by the entertainment industry. The RIDICULOUS OVER exaggeration of the SAG in their pant’s, the excessive jewelry and the like. I like rap just as much as the next but the difference is that even as a youth I knew where rap STOPPED and real life BEGAN and that is what is missing from our youth today COMMON SENSE! They want to believe that if they sell drugs like T.I. or Jay-Z then they will be where these guys are NOW but what they forget is that MOST end up dead, in jail or maimed by the very game that was glorified in the songs. Or they become killers becasue they want to believe they are some Mafiosi, not realizing that ONE, the Italian mafia doesn’t care for Blacks and TWO, killing just because will land you in jail or the the Electric chair!! No matter what race the youth comes from as a WHOLE their focus needs to be RE-focused and they need to know how important they are to our future, if not we are doomed to chaos! Lastly “However, do our young men and women hold themselves close?” C Jones I dunno, ALL we can do is pray they wake up and we as adults have to help!
Blessings be upon you
Troy
I cannot not breathe at the horror these women suffered, I have not words write now becausing I am experiencing profound grief.
These stories are unconcievable and yet I have heard them before various ones but not in such volumn,and not having so many females as victims. Please let me compose myself and I will return…I was prompted to google stories like this after reading “Memory of me in Tree” by RCofer or Rscofer I saw two spellings. On a Publishing website that I too publish on. She was raped, and her boyfriend was murdered, she became inpregnated and when the local white boys who raped her saw she was carrying the child they hung her along with their fathers help and cut the unborn baby from her belly and stepped on it
I had never heard this story and was compelled to find out what else I did not know.
Barbara,
Can we get a link to the website you mentioned.
So Sorry it has taken this long to respond, I have the information on my laptop I will forward it to in the morning. The sight is a place for writers to publish their stories. I will forward to you in the morning.
Barbara
I was looking up the song “Strange Fruit” and found a photo of Laura Nelson. A search of her name lead me to this site. As horrible as it may be, I thank you for sharing these women’s stories.
It is an ugly, ugly part of our history, but it is something we cannot gloss over. “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
Rachel, i am a Ghanaian and just visited the site strange fruit. my heart is down and weeping. As an african, i wonder why the world sees as nothing but beasts with no intelligence. but in it all i see envy on the part of our oppressors, we have survived more than any other race no matter what. I think i visit to the Cape coast, elmina castle in Ghana will shed more light on the resiliency of the Black man, you can email me on quachaf@yahoo.co.uk if you want more on the slave castles in Ghana.bye
I found this site by accident…I am setting here right now in so many tears…my god…why did these white people get away with all of these murders?? I am in shock about what they did to the pregnant women….my god what kind of people…I really don’t have any words to explain. All I can say is…oh my god…Heavenly father WHY?? The terrible thing about all of these stories is all of these African Americans was innocent and died so very badly. Just because they were black people. It’s so sad.
“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth”. For those that do not understand that. Simply put, the generations of terrorism from whites against blacks all over the world will eventually end and it is my strong conviction that they,(whites) wil see the end of their race..The black man will rise to power in politics, finance, socio-economics and the white man will perish from all of humanity.
Nearli, I can completely understand why you would hope that about the white man especially after reading the terrible things above that the white man has done to the innocent black man, but please keep in mind that there are some white men (and women) out there who have always believed that the white man and the black man (and the yellow man, and the red man) were created equal and have always deserved to be treated as so. Unfortunately I believe that there will always be terrorism by one section of one group against another group, but that doesn’t mean that all of the group that those terrorists belong to feel and do the same.
Thank you Rachel, I am a white person and feel revolted, furious, and nauseated by what I read was perpetrated by ignorant, hate-intoxicated white people. I beg everyone to please, please resist the seemingly overwhelming temptation to confront this literally demonized behavior with a generalized hatred for anyone who by a fluke of genetics happens to have been born with white skin. I am a white person who lives in a predominantly black neighborhood and consider my neighbors practically my family. We share each others yards, homes, and tables. Currently I have lost my job – and my black neighbors have said were I to lose my home they would gladly take me in. And I feel strongly the same way about them. I can imagine in history a time of “reverse hatred” having a mob break into my house dragging me out to be burned alive or thrown over a bridge just because I happened to be a white person at the wrong place and wrong time. I read on this website comments made of desired genocide of “the white race.” This is exactly what we as human beings always do. One oppressor is taken down – to be replaced by another oppressor. The problem isn’t having white skin, the problem is intolerance, hatred, stupidity, evil, blindness, and cruelty. I hope all of us as brothers and sisters in the human race can aggressively unite as a family to defeat those malignant traits – but defeat and replace them with affirmation, love, intelligence, goodness, vision and compassion not repeat the same grave evils ourselves. And, I would add that not just “some” white people now affirm black people – but now, by the grace of God, the vast majority do. I still hear some white morons spouting racist poison – but they are generally viewed by MOST white people as dangerous fools.
Thank you Ken for your statements! I am a white female and I, too, am revolted and disgusted by the crimes committed against the black race in our American history. I believe it comes down to fear. I think the criminals who did these senseless, inhuman acts were terrified of the changes that were coming at that time in our history. I believe it comes down to ignorance. Ignorance in not being able to see a bigger picture than outside of your small window. There were many men in our history with such vision and moral fortitude that they could see a future of brotherhood of all men and women, of Americans, not dependent upon the color of skin. Martin Luther King could clearly see the day coming when we would be joined together as a human race and he fought for it because he knew our salvation depended on it. Why do we let history keep repeating itself? These things happened to the American Indians as well. Have we as a Nation, as individuals not risen above it? I would fight to protect anyone regardless of the color of their skin, if i saw them being abused in any way. I worry about our humanity. Everyday in the news we have reports of blacks killing blacks in gang crime, drive by shootings, etc and whites killing whites in school shootings and drug wars. Whites and blacks alike prostituting women and children in the sex slave trade that is becoming a menacing threat to us all. Where does it end? Hatred for our fellow man is still alive and living in America and all it takes is 1 hour spent watching the news to know that. We need to start teaching our children about love and honor for ourselves and for each other, teaching about accountability and responsibility because we have the past to look back on and learn from and use as a tool for teaching the next generation and the next how to be better humans than those that came before us.
I will never let myself forget the injustices to my race of people…no words can describe how I feel..I do not like to go down south, I never feel comfortable the whole time I am there and I am always afraid I am not safe…all my life I have felt my ancestors pain and have endured some of my own. I pray that one day all of the pain will end.
I remember seeing someone wear a sign that said “we have overcame” when Obama was elected in office. They just don’t know do they. We have not overcame injustice and hate. It is horrendous what was done to our people, and you are all right – these women and men on this site are our true heros, meanwhile there’s a lost generation out there who believes that beyonce and rihanna are great black american heros. they don’t know the half of it. we must never forget our past…never.
These women experienced the self-hatred internalized by those who desperately need to learn the power of the human spirit. These women are martyrs in the movement to redeem humanity from such a narrow view. The human mind is broadening to the overwhelming power justice and love have to transform hearts and minds. Knowledge of the inhumane behavior these women experienced helps us to expand our minds. Awareness of these errors help us to learn what not to do.
When I read what happened to my sisters and brothers it hurt me to my heart. Why? Why would you kill someone for no reason at all? Let me tell you something. White people, when things start happening in your family, like a baby dies or someone young is killed, it might not be nothing you did but something your great great grandparents did. The black slaves prayed and a curse will be put on all of your seeds may each and every one of them suffer and their children and their childrens children shall suffer may they all burn in hell.
I feel that (insecure)White people have always looked at Blacks as a threat. We are strong people who have endured a lot, even after the lynchings and the demeaning ways blacks have been threated we have bounced back, and are now moving foward. We have our first Black President of the United States of America. (who would have ever thought). There will always be people that want to put you down, and make you feel less then who you are or who you want to be, even your own people. Just remember only the strong survive, and we have come a long way to get were we are today. Don’t leave it up to others to teach our children how to be respectful Young Afican Americans you teach them. Make them pull up there pants when you see them with their pants below their behinds. Teach them to walk like a man. People who are threatened by us love it when the children of our future acts in this manor. Because they know that there will be no future for us if they continue to act in this manor.
I hope you are wrong. I hope that some day soon insecure people regardless of complexion will cease their insecurities. They will see the value of liftin others. They will be secure in the fact that when I rise you rise. They will come to know that I am because we are and we are because I am. Then we as the human race will become stronger as a result and no longer see strong people as a threat.
Cathy,
the USA offers Hope and despair, on my first visit to the USA and NYC in particular, i was marveled (compared to my country Ghana). i asked a lot of question like who dug these tunnels and they say Black people some 100 years ago. wow black strength but,the family system is broken,each for himself and seeking power not to influence decision but to kill and subdue other black men. here in Ghana, i can confidently say our social values in the reason why we have low crime rate, suicide, gangsterism despite our poverty etc. its simple, when i see a kid do wrong i can administer punishment and tell the mom later, we teach our kids to respect strangers because they may be a strangers someday. Black men need to stand up and get close to their kids. teach them to respect and share the values of our ancestors who endured the lash of the whip so they can have a better future..our women the least said the better
Greetings was referred to this site by way of a FB friend. He passed along this link on a thread discussing the book The New Jim Crow. TNJC focuses on the government conspiracy to control black men through incarceration. kzs
I am a member of NCOBRA (National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in america). This is another reason why reparations are due. A friend forward this information to me by email. I am in Colfax, Louisiana and just in my small town in 1873 ,there was a massacre of over 150 black men and iam sure there were many lynchings.
A friend sent me this information. Years ago I read “100 Years of Lynching” but the documentation contained in this website is moving to say the least. I remember hearing stories about things happening to our sisters like Mary Turner, but putting a name on the incident with dates and actual facts makes it more personal. I have a geat love and respect for Black Women, and it is because of the strength of our women like Mary Turner I am here today. We must teach our young brother and sisters about our past to elevate their minds and then their pants will automatically come up.
As Salaam Alaikum
Hotep
Peace
Thanks alot for the useful information you have here. I’m from Kenya and i’ve been researching alot on African Americans tribulations in the USA. What i believe is that all of this suffering will not be in vain because history will harshly judge those who were involved and condoned such gruesome acts on halpless persons.
Thanks alot for sharing these stories. I read “At the Hands of Persons Unknown” and found myself really drawn to these stories- obsessed with them. I find that mob mentality, the ideas behind them, and people’s ability to inflict such horror on another human race to be extremely interesting. I question whether these atrocities curse an entire nation. Is there a place in heaven for those who took an active part in lynchings- reading that most considered themselves to be carrying out God’s work? Looking at photographs of these events, you can’t help but believe these people live as ghosts among us. So many questions.
Than you for the information:
I was born in East Texas, Kilgore Texas In a Black settlement called Shiloh The only
place Blacks could own a business was a 1/4 mile area called Cedar Top. All of the towns
around this area (known as THE BIG THICKET ) year round is swamped with multiple growth
of all types of trees. Me and my cousin Peter 10 years old, and me 9 could see old ropes hanging from tree limb and horse hove and tire tracks deeply embedded in the ground when the soil was wet.
I ask my grandfather what the ropes were for, but he would always change the subject.
but my Aunt Ira told me the truth. she said you need to know for your own protection STAY AWAY FROM WHITE FOLKS! I did just that I am now 73 years old I would never live in Texas again.
It’s obvious by the hatred toward whites that this was written by blacks. Has anyone documented the physical attacks, murders, assaults, etc. done by blacks against whites? There have been far more black on white abuse after 1950 than was ever done to blacks. Endless cases of white women being raped and killed. White insecurity? Hardly; rather natural white fear of a race that has literally slummed most of the world. Why, in every country in the world do blacks fill every jail? Poverty of assets? or poverty of a basic core of goodness. Wolves never hesitate when they have a numerical advantage.
It is not the people…it is their BEHAVIOR!!!
“Why touch upon such themes?” perhaps some friend
May ask, incredulous; “and to what good end?
Why drag into the light of day
The errors of an age long passed away?”
I answer: “For the lesson that they teach:
The tolerance of opinion and of speech.”
—Longfellow
@J Lee You ignoramus!! Clearly you have zero knowledge of World History,not even American History,or you wouldn’t be spewing such ahistorical foolishness! 400+ years of death and destruction by whites in the western hemisphere,starting with the transatlantic trade in Africans and the destruction of indigenous populations in the caribbean,where a minimum of 100 million people perished during Europe’s barbaric, inhumane treatment of Indigenous people’s all over the globe! You left your desolate,decaying lands in Europe,using a concept created by sick,demented clergymen called Manifest Destiny,believing that you were chosen by God to rule over lesser breeds! You traveled the known world,raping,pillaging,murdering and stealing all that you can! Human and mineral resources were all the same to you. Blacks could never catch up to the murderous history of Europe and it’s descendants. Yes,ALL people have a criminal element in their communities that commit crimes,but since Blacks and Whites are virtually segregated in America,you Klan,Nazi,Neo-Nazi types need to stop fabricating this lie of enormous amounts of white women being raped and murdered by Black men. Show me anytime in American History,mobs of Black people,men women and children,attending a townwide gathering of lynching,mutilating and castrating whites,of murdering pregnant women and ripping the unborn child from the womb and crushing it’s head under boot! You should be ashamed of the skin you’re in for believing such idiocy!
that is even less Warrir1. thanks for your comments if J Lee understands you fine if not that’s painful too. adios
They also took pictures of their atrocities…just in case someone might want to suggest it did not happen…
Don’t waste your breath trying to educate him, or anyone like him, let’s keep our thoughts to ourselves and those who agree with us. By being more covert everyone gets what they want.They will not have to hear the negroes play the “race card”, and the negroes will be able to keep their thoughts, plans and ideas hidden from the caucasians. Much more can be accomplished with covert actions.
J Lee you are a racist dog and for the record, your race fills the prisons and welfare lines like anyone else. Your disgusting, inhuman and from your additude it wouldn’t shock me if you had several ancestors who carried a rope as well. You have no business commenting on this site and as far as I am concerned no business breathing either. Your people are barbari, savage monsters and need to be dealt with as such.
The reign of white terror will come to an end.
Bo,
What did you think of the content of the article? I hope you will not allow those like J Lee and their ilk distract you from the purpose of this site. If you could take the time and reflect on how this information affected you we would appreciate it.
Pregare per giorni migliori (italian) Pray for better days. Remember Marvin Gaye “only love can conquer hate” .I experianced the sickness in a very small way down south when I was told my italian blood was not white, my reaction outwardly was no reaction at all .However It started my realization that this country has a problem with race (the U.S.A.). I am currently residing in Brazil and the attitudes on race are totally different. There is no bail or bond here if you are charged with a serious racial crime here. It is in their constitution. This is a much poorer country than the U.S. but workers rights are respected and enforced in “workers courts” The U.S.A. has allowed unregulated capitalism run the show in the past by allowing the sale and ownership of human beings , and at present has caused dire economic consequences for the recreated wage-slave class. This powers that be in the U.S. have allways wanted cheap labor. I would not dare call myself a communist because I want to return eventually to the states but I will call myself a progressive. I believe as the socialists do that the races have been turned against each other for the love of money, and this has got to end . good night ,God bless and thank you for reading this to the end.
Mike B.
Thank you for sharing your insight with is Mike B.
All people, regardless of the human constructed idea of “race,” are capable of atrocities. Research any genocide throughout history – even today – and you will see people killing people. Learn from the past and apply it to today, not to continue the atrocities, but to stop them.
“We must meet physical force with soul force.”
Dr. Martin Luther King
from the “T Have A Dream Speech”
I’m currently writing a 7000 word essay on the three Klans’ perceptions of womanhood and found this site very useful for examples of the differences between views of black women and white women. Thank you!
You’re welcome Natasha…grateful to know this information is of value.
“Which is worst,he who commits the crime or he who allows it?” I know all these crimes are bad against the Negroes.But,God wasand still is sending baby girls to deliver the negros race.But they are being killed by envious black women. I know because I was rapes,sodomized,my tongue was cut up and burned withcigaretts.My right hand and my feet are filled with nail holes.My feet,legs,
arms were burned with a iron.But,God healed me and said,”Cryloud show my people their sins.”But dad was a preacher so I could’t!
I was told to go to the White race because Negroes ain’t ready to err their dirty laundry.Its been over 20 years.There is no where to go in black tv or radio. I have tried. I am the”New Harriet.”I’m writing my 3rd book trying to reach the negrorace.
I promised God I will free the negroes just like Harriet because she was my Hero he gave me as a guide.We God’s children will help other races gain freedom from within.Log on to my website
and read about me.With Much Love
Tina
When men are lynched it hurts real bad.But,when women and children are victims it hurts far more. The information you posted is so important. Also, it creates a greater love,unity,
and responability among all races to never allow such a criminal
system to be accepted.
I am a 33 year old, white mother of three and teacher to a mixed group of exceptionally brilliant children.
Because of the ethnicity represented in my classroom, I have been mindful of teaching all of my students, especially during Black History Month, what I can from well known historic figures like Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr….etc. In doing more research I came across your site and read each account with tears in my eyes. It sickens me that these atrocities were committed, but to think that white women only one hundred years ago, dressed their children in their ‘Sunday best’ to travel to the site where another human being was tortured and murdered…I find this beyond despicable. I have no words, only tears. There’s only so much graphic content I can divulge in the classroom, but I have and will most definitely teach my children the brutality in the history of their country and pray that God would give them the strength and courage to fight for what they’ve been taught is right.
Thank you for your research. These souls will be remembered.
Thank you for your comment. i hope that you take the time to share with your charges the life of the primary subject for this blog, The Honorable Lady Henrietta Vinton Davis. She was a contemporary of Frederick Douglass. He introduced her in her debut as a Shakespearean actress, elocutionist and dramatic reader. Her story along with those of her era rarely receive mention due them.
All the best.
a sad chapter in black peoples history.
i read this article and it brought me to tears what those women had to go through i mean i had to explain this to my daughter and niece about how they should respect their bodies and dont let these boy or anyone call you out your name and to appreciate life in general. Man this story should be addressed more to the public about what happened to these women and not let their deaths be in vain you know we should make this a bigger story because i will do my part because this should not be happened to no woman black or white you know and especially pregnant. God knows if it wasnt for him this world would be worser than this. so thank you for keeping us inform and keep me updated.
To hear that a pregnant (Mary Turner was 8 months) woman was hanged then cut open and her baby stompted to death coming into this world, makes me feel like the white man is the devil. I have never heard of anything so horrific in my life. If the shoe was on the other foot I don’t think my people (Black) could ever do anything like that. For all those white men and lying white women who falsely claimed rape and black kids where killed (Emmitt Till) I can assure you are all basting in hell with their father Satan. I hope they burn along with all the generations of their seed. This country was built by Satan, blood, murder, slavery, and the brutal murder of my American Indian brother and sisters. Honestly in my heart of hearts it makes me question God. How could he let babies be murdered. Gotta go starting the tears are falling.
Dear Heart,
Please forgive us if we caused you any pain in revealing the truth. It is our only intention to make the facts known. We sincerely hope that you will allow yourself to experience forgiveness. Holding grudges against those who engaged in evil does nothing to rid this planet of evil. Resisting evil only encourages evil to persist in the form of an eye for an eye…and then we are all blind.
Righteousness is mightier than sin. It’s the beginning of the end for tricknowledge.
In lieu of the ability to post genealogical research to Wikipedia.com, postings for genealogical research are located here. The genealogical research is in regard to the federal population record of Laura Nelson and her family. According to Wikipedia administrator SlimVirgin the records are not primary, only ‘speculative’. However, it is easy to see the relationship between the records and how they substantiate Laura and her family’s life leading up to her and her son’s death and her husband’s incarceration at McAlester.
Visit below to learn more about the two act play concerning the 1911 lynching.
http://lauranelsonlynching.weebly.com/ also lauranelsonlynching.com
Thank you for sharing that information. One of the reasons the information on women who have been lynched became important to me is the correlation between those women and Henrietta Vinton Davis. Miss Davis is lying in an unmarked grave like most of the women who were lynched. In my research on Miss Davis the most important question yet to be answered is “where are her relatives.” Likewise, a similar question regarding the women who have been lynched. Again we are grateful for what you have shared with us. All the best.
I found this site by searching black women who were lynched as a result of a discussion that I had with a friend. He stated that he was not aware of any black women who had been lynched. As a white southern woman educated in the 50′s I was not either, but I have since spent time trying to correct the misperceptions about race and slavery that characterized my early upbringing. I am more surprised that he as a black man did not have this awareness of the horrors perpetuated on the females of his own race. I am shocked and saddened every day that the situation regarding racial and gender equality does not seem to be improving despite the fact that many legal gains have been made in the past. I would point to the correctional system and the welfare system as the instruments that are being currently used to insure that these gains are eradicated. By the way, I work in the welfare system so I have first hand knowledge of the policies which continue to stifle our young people by encouraging their participation in economic slavery.
Carol, I thank you for such honesty and as for the lack of knowledge of your friend… it is not an anomaly. The school systems teaches very little of the true history of America in hope in my opinion of forgetting.
I don’t think that it is an intentional HIDING per se but a MISEDUCATION if you will for all students. Not just white or black but ALL races of students need to know about how things have been to prevent it’s repetition.
Ignoring a fact will NOT make it not a fact no matter how ugly, so I feel the school system should embrace the entire history of America and not just what is COMFORTABLE!
As for the economic slavery of the welfare system, I AGREE. For those that NEED it then so mote it be but have a true assessment of those compared to those that CHOOSE the system over work and make them STAND. However standing will entail education and a trade.
In either event, as a Black man I feel no SHAME because I may have descended from slaves, only PRIDE because my existence is PROOF that I come from a stock so RESILIENT that not even an institution as cruel as slavery and racism could extinguish my foremothers and forefathers!
Carol, thank you for your post and many blessing be upon you.
Troy
The bitter TRUTH MUST BE HEARD!! No one intends to bring these beloved and honored souls back with bitterness but we must be aware of their sacrifice and educate our young to these realities. I am blown away by the inhumanity and callous manner in which one human can treat another, just a TRAVESTY!
This was shared on FB.
Previously I did look for lynching in NC see if any of them were relatives. I hadn’t heard any relatives speak on this unspeakable subject.
I’m curious to know if there were generational suffering by the whites and their families.
I know well about the lynchings especially those in Mississippi. My great uncle, John Jackson was lynched, because he had the nerves to do a job whites in Benoit Mississippi felt was only for them. The job of driving what they called road gravers in 1946. Make no mistake about it and don’t fool yourselves, what i see in the attitudes of many whites in Mississippi and other southern states today, leads me to believe, many wouldn’t have a problem doing the same thing again. In fact they are now using their prisons instead. 76% of the incarcerated in Mississippi are Black and they work free.
Truth!
I am an artist working on a massive installation (stillcounting.net) dealing with those who have been murdered around the globe and as far back as the murder of Jesus Christ.
I was really supposed to be studying for a test for a history class but I stumbled onto here and had gotten side tracked.
As a West Indian i never really understood the racial problem in America . A few days ago i was going through the books in the library at my children’s school and came across this book “100 Years of Lynching” by Ralph Ginzburg. I couldn’t believe the things i was reading.How could people who claim to be civilized do that to another human being? and even taking their bones as trophies? Guilty or not it wasn’t for them to decide and some of the law men , they were just as bad.
We Must Never Forget!
I heard about Laura Nelson in a song by (I think) Woody Guthrie. I understood from the song and comments by the radio presenter (Folk Alley) that her baby was lynched as well.
Reading things like this makes it difficult to be optomistic about the future of humanity. The really sad thing about these stories is that the perpertraters wwould have all thought of themselves as good people, even those who stomped a baby to death while they laughed and joked and the mother burnt after being soaked in petrol. I guess it is likley that some regreted and felt remorse for what they had done.
I hope so.
Peter
Brisbane, Australia
It saddens me as o read these horrific stories and just to think it wasn’t that London ago. I am 36 and knew a little about lynching not from school but from my ancestors stories. I always wondered why Sid the white people have so much hate for colored people as I grow and get more knowledge I now know it’s because we are really the chosen people and they are just animals in every sense. In o e story u said blacks just called on Jesus it’s said to say that that white man they call Jesuswas nothing but
a murderer a rapist and a thief that was who the white man made us believe Jesus looked like oh and a faggot so in calling on that thing they were really calling on satin don’t get me wrong I believe in Jesus but he dam sure don’t look like that man on these pictures they show us but I believe that neither here nor there just needed to get that out there as for the women who were being lunched and the men I pray and hope the there souls left there bodies before insuring any of that pure he’ll and as for those who witnessed it laughed at it thought it was funny believe this they will pay dearly for it and will forever be cursed we may not see it but the ones that they lynched have seen it and will see ther generations of families suffer in ways unamagible. I didn’t know any of those peoples personally but sone wher my ancestors we all relayed at the end of the day and I would like to thank u for sharing this with me because it has made me a different women in more ways than u can think these people will always have a place in my heart I feel like I knew them but whitey better watch out for that sun that’s eating there asses alive now and they ain’t seen nothing yet . U better believe this revolution will be televised. Please black people stand up now is the rime don’t br afraid they can’t do no more to u they are
being exposed
This is another stain on the so-called land of the free and home of the Brave.
Thank you for this information. While I was aware of the numerous lynchings of African-American men, I had no idea that the lynching of African-American women was so wide spread. We as African-Americans have endured a painful history heaped upon us by whites throughout the United States. Lynchings of African Americans, male and female, appeared to be the “order of the day” in numerous communities across this country. We should never forget.
Buddy Moore
this is what they want us 2 forget…
…and our ancestors want us to remember….
G-D Bless You for keeping the “Truth Alive”
Thank you for inspiring us to keep on keeping on!!!
Searching for knowledge, wisdom, truth and understanding, Those who did the above atrocitrocities are the scum and “criminals” of the earth. Keep posting!
I was reading about Ho chi minh and the article had at the bottom notes from an article he wrote in france in 1922 about lynching in America, he stated that some victims were women,I searched , then found this article, These stories and the names of those murdered should not be forgotten, as hard to read as they are, I’m gonna encourage my sons and friends to read them, the inhumanity of man to man just beggars belief.
As an actor I would like to see one of these lives and their abhorrent endings turned into a play, theatre has the power to educate and inform as well as entertain, It’s hard not to be consumed by hatred on reading such brutal accounts,in fact I’m having to work pretty hard at it, but in a way everyone associated with such acts is damaged , including the perpetrators. those who watched, cheered , smiled, gawked, picniced with their families at the site of a lynching, those white people who did not speak out or left justice unserved are just as guilty as those whose rabid hatred made them act in such a way, and they deserve the smaller infinitley poorer shallow lives that they unknowingly live.
We desire to see these names immortalized in some meaningful manner as well. Our proposal involves the reading of names and details as to their untimely demise emphasizing the cowardly nature of the acts perpetrated upon them.
I-thought-I-had-it-hard-that-in-1986-in-NY(Suffolk-County).I-was-jailed-for-three-weeks-on-a-pretext-(criminal-trespass),for-daring-to-marry-a-black-woman.She-is-in-heaven-now.I-live-in-Brazil-at-least-for-now.I-was-told-by-my-brother-in-law-(my-sisters)husband-that-the-USA-has-a-race-problem.From-his-mouth-to-Gods-ears.If-any-of-you-have-a-resentment.Pray-for-those-that-you-resent-Even-if-you-are-only-going-through-the-motions-do-it-any-way.You-will-find-that-after-two-weeks-you-will-come-to-mean-it.Pray-for-their-health-properity-and-happiness.Everythingyou-want-for-yourself-ask-for-them.The-world-will-begin-to-heal-itself-after-a-while.And-remember-all-of-you,each-of-us-white-or-black-or-otherwise-all-are-created-in-Gods-image.God-bless-all-of-you-and-on-behalf-of-anyone-who-has-been-ignorant-to-those-different-than-themselves,-I-apologise-.Mike.Bertolino
I don’t understand why would a person want to rape a woman and then hang her. This is a sickness, insanity, and being a fool only GOD has the correct punishment for the crimes. If the law passed judgement upon them I don’t think they would understand their crimes because of mental sickness. Why would a man want to have sex with a woman that he considers less than him or an animal does that make any logical sense? Then hang her and cut her unborn child from her stomach then stomp the baby to death were they human what did England cast out from that country pure white puke not considered to be a professional criminal but waste below an earthworm’s rear end.
White Jesus? I stand with you on all other commentary and believe we as a free society should stay mindful and be reminded of these horrorific atrocities perpetrated on innocents.
As a nation we should stand united.
But White Jesus ? He was anything but and your social anger shows through.
Don’t preclude another race or a Messiah
Because of rage. How ever just your rage is, it is not justification for the presumptuous judgement of an entire belief.
You are too intelligent for that
All of these people were unarmed women preyed on by the animals while the government sat back and left it. It seems that gun control laws worked well protecting black folks, just like it does today. Some things never change.
On a summer night in rosewell georgia,as I walked down a dark winding road I felt sumthing come over,me and visions of hangings played. Seein brothers running for their lives, while beeing hunted down. Mind you I’m. From los angeles cali. Years past I could figure out why was my people chosen to be the,slaves out of all nations, and what I found out later was our fore fathers.Broke the laws stautes and commandments, of the mosthigh god.and slavery is our punishment and our enemy will destroy us, every act that is witnessed on your site and more are the curses of the negros. The chosen people of god.the hebrews the jews of the holy bible, they hung christ on a tree, as well so if your guessing he’s black your rite on, he’s from the hebrew tribe of judah as well as all so called african americans. Know thy self and thy enemys. My people in these lastdays as it point to the return of christ these are so wicked times we are living in, much.worst then our forefathers but we have the victory through christ. Its is done. shalom
I have never seen such crap in all my life. People become slaves because they are inferior and are easily captured. Why blame others for that? The people who became slaves had never invented the wheel. Arabs had made slaves of them for centuries. The Irish, scottish, and all other criminals who escaped justice in their own countries by fleeing to america, as well as all the slaves, had a far better life than they might have expected. Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. Get on with life and thank your lucky stars. Why do american negores have blues while Caribbeans have calypso?
Cassius, all races at some time in their history have had large numbers of their population enslaved.
And it is also true that all races at some time in their history have been part of a powerful empire.
This is because the rise and fall of empires is cyclical. The Mongols had the largest and most powerful empire between 1100- 1400 AD – where are they now? The Egyptians – black africans – are the OLDEST empire we presently know of. We have only recently understood HOW they were able to create the pyramids with the resources available. Language is believed to have begun in Africa, and that’s the most useful tool to have.
We don’t know where the wheel was first utilised; historians think likely Asia – so unless you are of Asian descent – your distant relatives didn’t invent the wheel either! Black peoples captured to work for Europeans did suffer terribly and unfairly – and unfairness continued. I notice that many sites state Africans traded their own peoples to other nations – as though that makes slavery ok. Well Africans did trade their own peoples as slaves. The English have also enslaved peoples within their own kingdom – as have all other empires grown utilising the resources of their own and other countries. The human race is evolving, more countries have a fairer political system now and the option to vote. Abolition of slavery is something that needs to be watched for and fought for – always. It is still present across the globe. The thing is all humans, irrespective of race or religion have the capacity to behave shockingly cruel and think without compassion. It’s within us all. And all peoples also share the capacity to be loving and compassionate. Much of the history of Africa has been lost – recent history (last 500 yrs) and ancient. It is important that the history of Africa is recovered. It is crazy to have people think black heritage begun approx 1700AD – with slavery. There is so much more to discover, learn and understand. Artworks found in central Africa carbon dated from 1400AD rival the finest art pieces from the Renaissance period in Italy. We know Africa had international commercial markets in 1000AD.
Cassius, you are right in stating it is best to make most of opportunities available to us. The best anyone can do is to be loving, fair, kind to yourself and others. Make the most of your talents – whatever they may be. Know history, be vigilant.
Fortunately, “Cassius”, the foregoing are facts, not crap. A careful analysis will reveal that none of the women mentioned above were slaves or enslaved, therefore slavery and the process of enslavement are of no issue here. Additionally, no one is to blame, we merely seek to have those responsible take responsibility for their actions. Apparently, you take exception to that. So be it. However, where it not for the fact the perpetrators of the acts above outlined as concerned as you seem to be with defending the actions of those who engaged in such brutal, vicious and sadistic behavior we might not be able to tell the stories of these women. Additionally, we have taken the opinion that killers, all killers are cowards. Why you seem intent on defending the acts of such mindless people escapes us. Are you related to any of the fiends who carried out the the acts above? Then why do you identify with them in seeing the acts from their point of view?
Since you seem to irrationally rationalize the horrific acts by contrasting them with equally inhumane behavior of Arabs “for centuries,” what part of the history before there were Arabs would you use to condemn such behavior? Would it be the centuries or millennia through which the only place on this planet we call earth upright bipedalism was engaged in by only those people who occupied the African continent? Or would it be the centuries through which the only culture cultivated on this planet was the cult of fire, again on the African continent?
It seems that people who have lost that part of their humanity which allowed them to engage in such barbarity as documented above surely can defend their own heartless acts without any assistance from the likes of you.
Look a gift horse in the mouth? Get on with life? Exactly how do we do that? We are constantly reminded about the slave masters who founded the United States of America every time a dollar trades hands. Not to mention the endless reiteration that our ancestors were raped and enslaved every time we are requested to identify ourselves by name. There were no names like Stevens, Robinson nor McCoy in Africa. We will not slavishly obey your request to conceal the facts. We will not blind our historical memory and and make ourselves forget what has happened while all around us are those who endlessly refrain “never again” in response to their past injustices. Doing so would only amount to the behavior of those who continue to suffer the effects of “post traumatic slavery syndrome” or “Stockholm syndrome.” That act of silence could only be done to appease those who would allow history to repeat itself.
Therefore, you must either find another site on the internet more amenable to your tastes or accept the facts as they are presented here.
Never under-estimate the cruelty and barbaric ways of white ppl. Never turn your back and never blink your eyes. Those who have suffered bought their BS. Stay up, stay alert and stay alive!!!
I was doing some research for my women’s studies class discussing black female sexuality and it’s history. Found your Site very informative thanks.
I was researching lynching for a class and saw this as an option after a google search. I’ve always seen pictures with men being lynched, but not women. I’m not surprised though as it didn’t matter if you were a woman or with child, the hatred for African Americans ran deep and continues. Now there is more of an undercurrent…..some have been conditioned to think and believe African Americans are less than and it is with that mindset, old wounds can’t heal. Thanks for sharing this part of history regardless of how awkward or offensive it may be to some. we need to know all aspects of our history; the good, the bad, and the ugly.
That mindset exists in persons who have yet to learn to love themselves. They are riddled with fear. Fear they may in fact be less than. They are projecting their internalized thoughts onto others in hopes it will distract from their true feelings about themselves. The only solution for that mindset is to learn to love themselves, not project an image of someone who is superior. Loving themselves will allow them to accept whatever place in the cosmic flow they have been created to fill, rather than feeling insecure over someone having a place higher than their own.
Once they learn to love themselves, can they begin to love others.
Mary Turner lynching (1918) is a proven hoax. Never happened. It ws invented by 24-year-old Walter White when he began work for the NAACP in 1918 (White began work for the NAACP at the Crisis Magazine). Tho overall the Crisis was usually fair-minded, nevertheless, it still catered to an elusive black audience, and, as such, the rules of ethical journalism reporting often took a back seat to the insatiable appetite of the Negro to want black victims of white crimes. And embellishing (lying), since there was no law against the practice, was a favorite tool of the black journalist. There was NO Mary Turner lynching. Not a single legitimate newspaper (white newspaper- New York Times, Chicago Tribune, etc) reported on this incident. I know because I checked their archives. No doubt Walter White was encourage to make up this story by W.E.B Dubious..
What has been conclusively shown is all the atrocities committee by blacks against innocent white people. The Negro rapist a CONSTANT menace to white people –tho no where near what he was been since forced integration was created in 1964.
The depth to which I am appalled by your comment is to such a degree, there are no words with which to describe it.
Fortunately, by attempting to engage in the above fraud and deception with your comments, you have actually confirmed the behavior documented here is not proof of an advanced civilization.
Mary Turner and the others were lynched in May of 1919. The article by the New York Times reporting on the lynching of Mary Turner:
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F60F1EFC3D5A11738DDDA90A94DD405B888DF1D3
Article in the The Spokesman Review based on the Associated Press report of Mary Turner’s Lynching.
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=TKZVAAAAIBAJ&sjid=jOADAAAAIBAJ&dq=mary%20turner%20lynching&pg=3683%2C4843464
Walter White did not publish his report in the Crisis until September 1919. Here is a link to his work
http://books.google.com/books?id=ZVoEAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA221&dq=walter%20white%20mary%20turner&pg=PA221#v=onepage&q=walter%20white%20mary%20turner&f=false
For the record I am humbly grateful for the opportunity to debunk your comments.
Henrietta Vinton Davis, Thank you for providing those links. I stand corrected. A couple of years ago I did check the New York Times archives but found nothing. I also checked Chi. Tribune and nothing. My internet search on the Turner incident also came up with nothing but “claims” of this incident, but nothing substantiating it. I accept your sources as legit. However, I DO NOT believe for one second that Mary Turner had her stomach ripped open and her child came tumbling out. NONSENSE. I also see that you hv failed to acknowledge the part played in this lynching by blacks. How many of the four blacks participated in the murder of the white male, and the attempted murder of his wife, no one will ever know. But the fact remains that ONCE AGAIN we see black provocation – murder of an innocent white person. White people acted according to the times in which they lived. PERIOD. And, ONCE AGAIN, we also see a black person (I assume you’re black) absolutely refusing to give one word of recognition to the white victims. So typical…
For your edification Henrietta, here are some atrocities that white people faced at the hands of criminal-minded blacks:
http://theinjusticefile.blogspot.com/2011/03/african-american-atrocities-from-1900.html
NOTE: drop down to #17 and read my version of this incident
.Also Henrietta, I include a link.below to show you – and educate you – on the extent of how much white people gave of their time and money to your people in an effort try to help your people achieve a better standard of living. The charity and generosity that white people demonstrated toward your people after 1865 was (still is) unprecedented in human history.
http://s-leretseh.hubpages.com/hub/The-Unheralted-Charity-of-White-toward-Black-in-America
White people are not, and never hv been, the pack of demons you and so many other blacks want to make them out to be. Today in America, the color of RACISM and HATE … is black. I know. I’ve been documenting it.
A4J,
This blog is about Henrietta Vinton Davis. She was a woman who Marcus Garvey called “The Greatest Woman of the Negro (African) Race today as she returned with the first ship of the Black Star Line during its first excursion to the Caribbean. We created this blog to livicate her as she has no marker on her grave. Over time it came to our attention, she in her unmarked grave was the same as Black Women Who Had Been Lynched. Had the treasonous, self-hating, cowardly house negroes who betrayed Marcus Garvey not interfered with his work and the efforts of the UNIA to redeem Africa, whatever you seem determined to seek sympathy for would never have happened.
A4J what you fail to realize is the Negro and the “House Negro” are not the product of Africa. It is not the product of the African mind. The African mind produced Igbos, Yorubas, Hausas, Akan, Efik, Zulu, Khosa, etc. If the persons you are referring to in your research committed any acts in opposition to the principles of Maat then only the person who created them can take responsibility for their actions. If you are looking for someone to blame, let James Baldwin tell you “Who is the Nigger.”
Beginning with the 1850 and continuing with the 1860 United States Census the United States government replaced the names of slaves with numbers in the census record. It was legally bound by the United States Congress to eliminate the names of those people psychologically coerced into accepting their lot as slave because, “they might think they are human.” What do you expect to happen A4J? Take away the option of returning to the motherland, deprive a people of all knowledge of self and what do you have? You tell us because all you seem capable of doing is heaping blame on the people Homer referred to as the “blameless Ethiopians.”
You refuse to acknowledge the efforts of people like George Alexander Hackett and Mary Church Terrell to civilize the people who bombed Rosewood and Tulsa, Oklahoma. Have you no shame? Do you really believe that the incidents you presented are acts committed by people who were thinking for themselves? They could not even name themselves. The process of enslavement was nothing more than a systematic attempt to make men mad in a way never before seen on the face of the planet earth. How much of American history do you intend to deprive yourself?
What you have documented is the results of reciprocity or as Malcolm X called it “chickens coming home to roost.” For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Deny the first cause all you want. George Clinton tells us, “if you don’t like the cause, don’t produce the effect.” But it is too late for that now isn’t it. Rather than take responsibility for the atrocity imposed, you seek to place blame. Ok go ahead. This is not your audience. You only sought out this website because of fear. Fear that those of us who have emancipated ourselves from anguish of mental slavery enough to document the atrocities against us have not only reached the state of Keyamsha (the awakened) we have done so to the point that we have begun to make Sankofa, and justifiably so. You should be afraid. People like you thought the African in America would have been eliminated long ago. Yet here we are, the survivors of the most brutal, vicious, sadistic, inhumane form of behavior ever visited upon one group of people against another in the history of the human race to have their offspring tell about it.
If there was anything like civilization in the United States then it should have been imparted to the people whose behavior you so gleefully sully this blog with information regarding. The actions of you and the people who think like you is not evidence of an advanced civilization….and you know it.
fool you cant even google search for information.
Whilst conducting research on a Family Adventure Novel (Anania Goes To…Africa by EM.EM.Genesis on amazon) about travel and adventure for an Author, I was shocked, upset and disgusted at the level of atrocities and torture heaped upon Black Africans by White Europeans when they forcefully removed Africans from their lands. I couldn’t sleep for weeks. One type of atrocity in particular stuck with me and I’ll never forget where the captain of a ship would kill an African who was trying to escape then would remove the heart and liver of that person and then forcefully feed the raw heart and liver to the other Africans to scare them so that they wouldn’t try to escape. The research was supposed to take me 2 weeks but it took me 2 months because I just couldn’t handle the information. I cried for days. I’m so sorry that these good people had to go through this. Reading through the Novel once the Author published it opened my eyes to a lot of things I didn’t know about Africa. Whilst the book showcased the fun and adventure aspect, it also “tastefully” touched on slavery.
WE didn’t have anything taken from US, our ancestors did
I was looking for info about a rather obscure black community named Cedartop I saw mentioned in a book I was reading awhile back. Where exactly was it located? This info needs to be passed on so no one forgets.
American4Justice, I would feel pity for you, were you not so dangerous. I could share personal stories from my OWN childhood, but with your attitude, you would just find a way to dismiss. The emotions from my past are in the past now, and I do not generalize what happened to all Euro-Americans. But…I will fiercely defend and claim my right to my memories of my true personal history, and to the true history of my people.
Anyway, to the owners of the site, I discovered this, searching for where some of the Euro-Americans in lynching photographs, or undocumented participants in atrocities and their descendants are today. Whenever I look at those photos or think of the murderers of our ancestors, I keep saying–these people are still among us today, and if they did not do some serious repenting, these attitudes have likely been passed on. I did buy one book about a relative of one such person.
this is horror,our old parents,hell to Americaaaaaaaaaa
Watch a true story called, Machine Gun Preacher
Any particular reason why, Jack?
I’M LOVING AND HATING THIS POST. as a FREE THINKER i don’t pray to jesus and still laugh at those who do. too bad HIStory will not ever give true accounts of OURstory. thank you for this blog. i sure do appreciate it.
I don’t know why I decided to google a search for black women lynched during early 19th century America. Though I was always fascinated with American history in respect to Black history. But I must admit recieving this information is overwhelming and I will revisit when my nerves can absorb more. Thank you for your reminder-we need more on a continual basis. I will return soon.
Edward C Tramble III
I am a student at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities enrolled in The Theology of James Cone class and today is our last day discussing Cone’s The Cross and the Lynching Tree. In preparing for today’s class, I wanted to find information on a pregnant woman who had been lynched in Georgia. I remembered reading about her, but I wanted to refresh myself on the horrific details. From your site, I assume that this woman was Mary Turner. Thank you for providing this history and debunking that her lynching was a hoax.