In the early 1900s, brutal killings of African Americans were nothing less than normal. In fact, the murders were very much expected in places like Alabama. Murders of black people were so normal that they were left unsolved. On April 25, 1909, John Thomas was 25 years old and lived in Jefferson County. Andy Roy
On July 9, 1907, Anthony Davis, age 25, married Lucy Mitchell. A year later, on August 21, 1908, a white mob killed Mr. Davis on his way home from work. No record is available on the rest of his family, but a newspaper account said he was diligent in reporting to the sheriff that he
On August 4, 1908, William Miller of Brighton, Alabama, was hanged outside the Brighton jail. Records show that Mr. Miller was a coal miner and a member of the union, but reveal nothing else about his age or family. In August 1908, unionized workers had gone on strike at mines near Brighton. On August 4,
Elijah Nelms, known also as Lige Nelms, was born in 1881. At age 22, he married Nettie Tolbert, an African-American woman. They had a son, Jaussie Smith. Mr. Nelms labored as a pumper, someone who pumps up mining products through wells, in the Banner Mines owned by the Pratt Consolidated Coal Company, in Pratt City.
On September 3, 1907, Jerry Johnson’s body was found in an alley in Lewisburg, now part of the Fairmont area. He had been shot multiple times. The press reported that Mr. Johnson was believed to be the man a white mob had chased the day before. The mob had formed after a white woman said
On August 2, 1901, Charles Bentley was lynched in Leeds, Alabama. The account in The New York Times on August 3, 1901, gives no more information about Bentley, his age, family, or occupation. An all-white jury found Mr. Bentley guilty of killing a white man by the name of Jim Vann in Leeds. The
An unknown African-American man was 25 years old when a group of white men shot him to death. The man was one of several victims of a manhunt for a fugitive by the name of Jim Brown. The lawlessness and violence demonstrated in the manhunt illustrates how little worth white men and city and state
Jake McKenzie was born in the early 1860s in Macon County, Alabama. He had two older siblings, Lewis and Nelly McKenzie. The 1866 Macon County census report does not list any parents for these children. At some point, Jake McKenzie moved to Jefferson County, Alabama, and worked at Brookside Mines, a mine owned by Sloss-Sheffield
An article in The Atlanta Constitution, published on December 8, 1896, bears the headline “Posse Kills Strange Negro: Flimflam Workers Try To Do Irondale Merchants.” A second, sub-headline elaborates, “New One and Two Dollar Bills Taken For Counterfeit and Refused. An Inquest.” From minimal reporting on the day after his killing to his inclusion in
On October 10, 1896, Henry Cyat was lynched by a mob after being seized following a confession coerced from another man, James Anderson, prior to Mr. Anderson being lynched. Mr. Cyat’s and Mr. Anderson’s lynchings followed the death of Randolph Falls, a white farmer from the small town of Toadvine, Alabama. Mr. Anderson and Mr. Cyat
