Will McBride, 60 years old, from Adamsville, Alabama, was murdered on the night of Thursday, July 12, 1923. No more personal information is available about him, except that he was described as an “old man” by a crowd of school children. 

Mr. McBride first came before the court on a charge of assault after children reported they were frightened when meeting him on a country road, even though he had done nothing to them. Mr. McBride was discharged. That night, a group of members of a masked organization took Mr. McBride from his home and fatally lynched him. His body was found later. 

The first known report of Mr. McBride’s death was published Thursday, August 23, 1923, in a Charlotte, North Carolina newspaper. However, his death almost went unnoticed until the NAACP released a complete report on his lynching. They wrote, “colored people who witnessed the affair have been told to leave town and terrorized into silence.” The NAACP forwarded the report to the Alabama governor with a request for investigation and punishment. It is unclear if any proper investigation ever occured. 

Jimena Ortiz-Perez 

Lawson State Community College 

 

Selected Sources 

“Report Unpublished Lynching of 60 Year Old Negro at Adamsville,” Newspaper Unknown, August 31, 1923, Mobile, Alabama. Tuskegee Archives.