Tag: lynchings
What Qualified as a Lynching?
Where to Find More Information About the Jefferson County Memorial Project
Victims’ Stories
Students at colleges in the Birmingham area researched lynchings of 30 victims, including facts they found mostly in government documents and press reports, along with some of their impressions of the situations. Here are a few of the victims’ stories. Read more.
Lewis Houston, Nov. 24, 1883, Linn Park
Lewis Houston was accused of assaulting a white woman and arrested by police. Rumors swirled about plans to lynch him. A mob of white men began to gather outside the jail. On Saturday evening, Nov. 24, 1883, a mob of 150 men approached the jail to apprehend Lewis. The mob of men broke into the jail with pistols and took Mr. Houston from his cell. The mob dragged Mr. Houston from Fourth Avenue North to Capitol Park, now known as Linn Park.Read more.
O.D. Henderson, May 9, 1940, Fairfield
O.D. Henderson, a 25-year-old African-American man from Fairfield, worked at the Tennessee Coal and Railroad Iron Company. On May 9, 1940, Mr. Henderson was walking to work when a coworker, M.M. Hagood, accused Mr. Henderson of bumping into him and knocking him down. Mr. Hagood called a nearby officer, named Glenn, over. Officer Glenn allowed Mr. Hagood to beat Mr. Henderson on the street, then dragged him to the police station, where he and another officer continued to beat him as other officers watch. Read more.
James Thomas, July 3, 1897, Blossburg
The lynching of James Thomas occurred on July 3, 1897, in the Jefferson County mining town of Blossburg. The Birmingham News reported that his body was found “in Pickney branch, a mile or two above Blossburg, riddled with bullets and very much dead.” A group of white men lynched Mr. Thomas because he said he had information about a white woman who was assaulted in Blossburg.
Unlike most cases of racial violence, a trial ensued against these men. The black population of Blossburg raised a fund to prosecute four men: Sam Jones, Charles Clark, Joe Williams and Jack Hollins. The Birmingham News wrote, “The negroes held that the summary death of Thomas was an outrage … there was no extraneous evidence to tend to show that he was connected with it. They argued that if he was suspected, there ought to have been some examination into the facts.” They were granted this examination, albeit posthumously, and the hearing was covered in full detail in the papers. There was great local interest in the case, with 20 black folks and 40 white folks attending the public hearing, and 50 witnesses slated to be heard. The hearing took place over three days. Read more.
O.D. Henderson, May 9, 1940, Fairfield
O.D. Henderson, a 25-year-old African-American man from Fairfield, worked at the Tennessee Coal and Railroad Iron Company. Mr. Henderson was not married and had no children, but he had two parents, Ben and Lillie Henderson.
On May 9, 1940, Mr. Henderson was walking to work when a coworker, M.M. Hagood, accused Mr. Henderson of bumping into him and knocking him down. Mr. Hagood called a nearby officer, named Glenn, over. Officer Glenn allowed Mr. Hagood to beat Mr. Henderson on the street. Officer Glenn then dragged Mr. Henderson to the local Fairfield police station where he, Mr. Hagood, and another police officer, Thomas Nelson, continued to beat him. Mr. Henderson’s face became swollen, bruised, and unrecognizable. Other officers watched and did nothing to stop the beating. A police officer who was a witness reported hearing Mr. Henderson say, “let me explain,” and “have mercy on me.”
Mr. Nelson shot Mr. Henderson three times in the chest, killing him. The town coroner labeled the death an “unjustifiable homicide.” Read more.
How They Did It: College Students Were Trained in Research Techniques to Tell the Stories of Jefferson County’s Lynching Victims
Before college students recruited to research lynchings for the Jefferson County Memorial Project could start their work, they had to go through training on finding information and interpreting it.
As their work began in earnest, students gathered at the Linn-Henley Research Library in downtown Birmingham for a primer in archival research.
“It’s hard to uncover information about people from a long time ago,” said Devyne Troy, a student at Miles College. “(The JCMP) taught us the best avenues to find birth certificates and death certificates. They gave us an outline of what public records you could possibly obtain and what records would be more strenuous to get. And they taught us about microfilm.” Read more.
Researching Lynchings was Disturbing, Eye-Opening for Students Who Took on the Project
“My whole life, I knew there was segregation,” Jimena Ortiz-Perez said. “I knew (lynching) happened. But I only knew the surface.”
Ortiz-Perez, a student at Lawson State Community College, is one of 21 college and graduate student fellows who wrote the Jefferson County Memorial Project’s “30 Victims” report, which provides an in-depth look at each of the county’s lynching victims from 1883 to 1940. It was a process that students said was equally harrowing and revelatory.
“Just the things that happened here in Birmingham, not too far from where I currently live, it’s like, ‘Whoa, this actually happened?’” Ortiz-Perez said. “It makes you look at the progress we have made, but at the same time, have we actually progressed enough? … It’s like a wake-up call for me.”
As the JCMP began its work on the report, it reached out to all six colleges in Jefferson County for student volunteers.
“We were really intentional about making sure that this was an intergenerational, interfaith, interracial organization, because that’s really important, we think, to changing the historical memory of a county and having the grassroots cohesiveness to really advocate for change,” project director Abigail Schneider said.
Some students say they joined the project because they were already interested in studying inequality. Amber Somma, a biology major at UAB, said she found out about the project through a mass email mistakenly sent to her department — but she found herself drawn to help anyway.
“I’m someone who is into these social justice-type things. … So that’s why I decided to do this. I just wanted to get that story out.” Read more.
“This Report Will Be Hard to Read:” Jefferson County Memorial Project Puts the Spotlight on Lynchings, and There’s More to Come.
Updated – Thirty people were lynched in Jefferson County between 1883 and 1940, victims of racial terror in the segregated, postwar South. Now, a new report will tells the story of each of those victims, with the goal of fostering dialogue about racial violence and its connection to present-day injustice.
The “Jefferson County’s 30 Residents” report, released Wednesday night, was compiled by the Jefferson County Memorial Project, a citizen-led cooperative working to spark conversation around the county’s history of racial violence.
The project was sparked by the Equal Justice Initiative’s National Memorial for Peace and Justice, which opened in Montgomery in April with the stated goal of placing America face-to-face with its history of injustice.
JCMP organizers said that their report will place Jefferson County at the forefront of a national movement sparked by the EJI’s monument, making the county a model for others looking to create a dialogue and advocate for change. Read more.
Read more stories in the package
Researching Birmingham’s Lynchings was Disturbing, Eye-Opening for College Students Who Took on the Project
How They Did It: College Students Were Trained in Research Techniques to Tell the Stories of Jefferson County’s Lynching Victims
Jefferson County’s 30 Victims
Jefferson County’s 30 Victims
This map links to a live interactive map on the JCMP’s website.
