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Black lynching victim in Alexandria, VA (1899)
Benjamin Thomas
(1883/1884 ? August 8, 1899) was a 16-year-old Black teenager who was
lynched
in
Alexandria, Virginia
on August 8, 1899. He had been arrested the day before and put into jail before a mob broke into the jail, dragging him outside, before beating him and ultimately he was hanged to death. He was the second of two reported lynching victims in Alexandria; the first, almost two years earlier, was
Joseph H. McCoy
.
Lynching
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Benjamin Thomas was arrested on August 7, 1899 accused of assaulting the 8-year-old daughter of a white neighbor. Thomas claimed his innocence. The evening of the next day, August 8, beginning around 10 PM a mob of hundreds of white residents surrounded the jail where was being held and demanded he be released to them. Around midnight they were able to break into the jail and forceably remove Thomas. He was then beaten, had a noose placed around his neck, and dragged approximately half a mile around the city. He was then lynched, hanged to death, at the corner of King and Fairfax streets.
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Legacy
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Beginning in 2020, the city of Alexandria has begun honoring Benjamin Thomas on the anniversary of his lynching.
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In 2022, the city held a ceremony involving soil collected from locations connected to Thomas's life to transport to the
Equal Justice Initiative
in Montgomery, Alabama.
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References
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Before 1900
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1900?1940
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After 1940
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Multiple victims
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- Death of Joseph Smith
(
Joseph Smith
,
Hyrum Smith
) (1844)
- Marais des Cygnes, KS, massacre
(1858)
- Great Hanging at Gainesville, TX
(1862)
- New York City draft riots
(1863)
- Detroit race riot (1863)
- ? Lachenais and four others
(1863)
- Fort Pillow, TN, massacre
(1864)
- Plummer Gang
(1864)
- Memphis massacre
(1866)
- Gallatin County, KY, race riot
(1866)
- New Orleans massacre of 1866
- Reno Brothers Gang
(1868)
- Camilla, GA, massacre
(1868)
- Steve Long and two half-brothers
(1868)
- Pulaski, TN, riot
(1868)
- Samuel Bierfield and Lawrence Bowman
(1868)
- Opelousas, LA, massacre
(1868)
- Bear River City riot
(1868)
- Chinese massacre of 1871
- Meridian, MS, race riot
(1871)
- Colfax, LA, massacre
(1873)
- Election riot of 1874
(AL)
- Juan, Antonio, and Marcelo Moya
(1874)
- Benjamin and Mollie French
(1876)
- Ellenton, SC, riot
(1876)
- Hamburg, SC, massacre
(1876)
- Thibodeax, LA, massacre
(1878)
- Mart and Tom Horrell
(1878)
- Nevlin Porter and Johnson Spencer
(1879)
- Elijah Frost, Abijah Gibson, Tom McCracken
(1879)
- T.J. House, James West, John Dorsey
(1880)
- New Orleans 1891 lynchings
(1891)
- Ruggles Brothers (CA)
(1892)
- Thomas Moss, Henry Stewart, Calvin McDowell (TN)
(1892)
- Porter and Spencer (MS)
(1897)
- Phoenix, SC, election riot
(1898)
- Wilmington, NC, insurrection
(1898)
- Julia and Frazier Baker
(1898)
- Pana, IL, riot
(1899)
- Watkinsville lynching
(1905)
- 1906 Atlanta race massacre
- Kemper County, MS
(1906)
- Walker family
(1908)
- Springfield race riot of 1908
- Slocum, TX, massacre
(1910)
- Laura and L.D. Nelson
(1911)
- Harris County, GA, lynchings
(1912)
- Newberry, FL, lynchings
(1916)
- East St. Louis, IL, riots
(1917)
- Lynching rampage in Brooks County, GA
(1918)
- Jenkins County, GA, riot
(1919)
- Longview, TX, race riot
(1919)
- Elaine, AR, race riot
(1919)
- Omaha race riot of 1919
- Knoxville riot of 1919
- Red Summer
(1919)
- Duluth, MN, lynchings
(1920)
- Ocoee, FL, massacre
(1920)
- Tulsa race massacre
(1921)
- Perry, FL, race riot
(1922)
- Rosewood, FL, massacre
(1923)
- Jim and Mark Fox
(1927)
- Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith
(1930)
- Tate County, MS
(1932)
- Thomas Harold Thurmond and John M. Holmes
(1933)
- Roosevelt Townes and Robert McDaniels
(1937)
- Beaumont, TX, Race Riot
(1943)
- O'Day Short, wife, and two children
(1945)
- Moore's Ford, GA, lynchings
(1946)
- Harry
and
Harriette Moore
(1952)
- Anniston, AL
(1961)
- Freedom Summer Murders
(
James Chaney
,
Andrew Goodman
,
Michael Schwerner
) (1964)
- Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore
(1964)
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