African American lynched in the U.S.
For the early Latter Day Saint leader, see
Joseph Coe
.
Joe Coe
, also known as
George Smith
, was an
African-American
laborer who was
lynched
on October 10, 1891, in
Omaha, Nebraska
. Overwhelmed by a mob of one thousand at the
Douglas County Courthouse
, the twelve city police officers stood by without intervening. Afterward, the mayor called the lynching "the most deplorable thing that has ever happened in the history of the country."
[1]
Biography and death
[
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]
Coe was a married man with two children who lived on North 12th Street north of downtown Omaha. On October 7, 1891, Lizzie Yates, a five-year-old white child who also lived in North Omaha, accused Coe of assaulting her. Before the verdict was passed rumors swept through Omaha about Coe getting away with the crime, about the girl dying, and about Coe receiving a small punishment.
A crowd of men was already gathered at the old
Douglas County
Courthouse the day when Coe was brought in, to witness an unrelated, scheduled
hanging
, an official execution. Rumors flew around Omaha that the girl had died, the guilty party was in jail, and was only going to be punished with 20 years' incarceration.
[2]
The next day, a
mob
of several hundred to 1,000 men formed in
downtown Omaha
early on October 10 and overwhelmed the
police
at the courthouse.
[3]
Councilman Moriarty drove his cane through a window and led the men against the courthouse.
[4]
Leaders drove Coe to the assumed victim's house in the
Near North Side
neighborhood to be identified by the parents. The mother immediately said she had seen Coe roaming around the house, although she would not swear that it was him.
[4]
When the mob brought Coe back to the courthouse to be lynched,
James E. Boyd
, the governor of Nebraska, and the county sheriff both appealed to the men to disperse. Instead, by midnight a crowd of 1,000 to 10,000 people had gathered at the courthouse.
[5]
The mob beat Coe and dragged him through city streets. He was probably already dead when he was
hung
from a streetcar wire at 17th and Harney Streets.
[6]
Omaha mayor
Richard C. Cushing
quickly condemned the lynching as "the most deplorable thing that has ever happened in the history of the country."
[7]
Aftermath
[
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]
Seven men were arrested for the crime, including the chief of police and the manager of a large dry goods store. A mob gathered outside the jail and threatened to destroy it unless the suspects were freed on bail but the County Attorney was determined to refuse them.
[8]
The following day when Coe's body was set for public viewing at a downtown
mortuary
, six thousand spectators filed by.
Hucksters
sold pieces of the lynching rope as souvenirs.
[9]
Ten days after the lynching, the Douglas County Assistant
Coroner
testified in court that Smith died of "fright", rather than of the wounds inflicted on him by the mob. Those wounds included sixteen wounds to his body and three
vertebrae
broken in his spine. Despite this, the coroner testified, "[T]he heart was so contracted and the blood was in such a condition that the doctor was satisfied that the man was literally scared to death." County Attorney Mahoney said he would have to modify the charges against the lynchers.
[10]
The grand jury decided not to prosecute.
See also
[
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]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Ginzburg, R. (1988)
100 Years of Lynchings.
Black Classic Press. p 129.
- ^
Peattie, E.W. (2005)
Impertinences: Selected Writings of Elia Peattie, a Journalist in the Gilded Age
. University of Nebraska Press. p. 106.
- ^
Quintard Taylor
,
In Search Of The Racial Frontier: African Americans in the American West, 1528-1990
, New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1998, p.205
- ^
a
b
Ginzburg, R. (1988), p 128, Reprint of 5 Oct 1919 article,
Omaha Bee
.
- ^
Ginzburg, R. (1988), Reprint of 5 Oct 1919 article,
Omaha Bee
, p 129. Note: This account was written by the inflammatory
Omaha Bee
shortly after the Sept. 1919 race riot, to which the Bee likely contributed by yellow journalism before the event. Their estimate of the size of the crowd is ten times larger an academic historian's account and may be overstated.
- ^
Taylor, Q. (1998)
In Search of the Racial Frontier: African Americans in the American West, 1528-1990
. W. W. Norton & Company. p. 206.
- ^
Ginzburg, R. (1988) p 129.
- ^
"Lynchers under arrest"
,
The New York Times.
October 11, 1891. Retrieved 5/25/08.
- ^
Bristow, D.L. (2002)
A Dirty, Wicked Town.
Caxton Press. p 253.
- ^
"Smith died of fright"
,
The New York Times
, October 20, 1891. Retrieved 4/20/08
External links
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]
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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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