| Part of Jim Crow Era | |
 Kirvin Lynching news coverage | |
| Date | May 6, 1922 |
|---|---|
| Location | Kirvin, Freestone County, Texas |
| Participants | A white mob of Kirvin, Texas lynched 3 Black men |
| Deaths |
|
Three Black men were lynched in Kirvin, Texas for allegedly murdering a young girl. According to the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary it was the 19th of 61 lynchings during 1922 in the United States. [1]
On May 4, 1922, on the last day of school in Kirvin, Texas, 17-year-old Eula Ausley was on her way home from school when she was grabbed from her horse, sexually assaulted and then horribly mutilated. [2] Her absence was noticed and a search party was sent out. They came across the body and the search party turned into a posse of 1,000 men armed with whatever weapon they had. Eula Ausley's family was in a feud with another family and the local Sheriff Horace Mayo already had two white suspects of that family in custody when the wife of McKinley "Snap" Curry told the Sheriff that he had suspiciously come home with blood on his clothes. The Sheriff changed the course of the investigation and arrested Curry. Under interrogation, he implicated two other men, Johnny Cornish (19) and Mose Jones (46). [3] The three were arrested and held in jail.
At midnight of May 6, the mob forced its way into the prison and dragged the three men out of the jail. The men were tortured on a lot between the old Baptist Church and the Methodist Church in Kirvin. Some reports state that they were castrated but at least two were burned alive. The victims were forced to watch as the others were tied to a plow, had wood stacked around them, doused with gasoline and lit on fire.
One paper reported that Tom Cornish was hanged from a tree. [4]
The two white men, Claude [5] and Audey Prowell, [6] who were initially arrested, were released and the sheriff released a statement that they were not involved in the murder of Eula Ausley. [3] Author Monte Akers in his book Flames After Midnight: Murder, Vengeance and the Desolation of a Texas Community, concluded that McKinley "Snap" Curry conspired with Claude and Audey Prowell to kill Eula Ausley and that Mose Jones and Johnny Cornish were innocent. [7]
Notes
References
Kirvin is a town in Freestone County, Texas, United States. The population was 101 at the 2020 census.
The Perry massacre was a racially motivated conflict in Perry, Florida, in December 1922. Whites killed four black men, including Charles Wright, who was lynched by being burned at the stake, and they also destroyed several buildings in the black community of Perry after the murder of Ruby Hendry, a white female schoolteacher.
James Harvey and Joe Jordan were two African-American men who were lynched on July 1, 1922, in Liberty County, Georgia, United States. They were seized by a mob of about 50 people and hanged while being transported by police from Wayne County to a jail in Savannah. Investigations by the NAACP showed that the police involved were complicit in their abduction by the mob. Twenty-two men were later indicted for the lynching, with four convicted.
Will Thrasher was lynched by a large mob of white men on February 2, 1922, for an alleged assault on a white school teacher.
Will Arthur Bell was lynched by a mob in Pontotoc County, Mississippi as the local sheriff tried to move him to prevent the lynching. According to the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary it was the 6th of 61 lynchings during 1922 in the United States.
Charles Strong was lynched in Mayo, Florida. According to the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary it was the 5th of 61 lynchings during 1922 in the United States.
Two Black men were lynched in Florence County, South Carolina near the border with Williamsburg County, South Carolina for allegedly having relations with a white woman. The news did not reach the national media until January 8, 1922, and so is recorded as the first lynching of 1922 in America. According to the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary there were 61 lynchings during 1922 in the United States.
William Baker was an 18-year-old African-American man who was lynched in Monroe County, Mississippi by a white mob on March 8, 1922. According to the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary it was the 14th of 61 lynchings during 1922 in the United States.
Alex Smith was a 60-year-old African-American man who was lynched in Gulfport, Harrison County, Mississippi by unknown attackers on March 22, 1922. According to the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary it was the 19th of 61 lynchings during 1922 in the United States.
Jim Early was a 25-year-old African-American man who was lynched in Plantersville, Grimes County, Texas, by a mob on May 17, 1922. According to the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary it was the 24th of 61 lynchings during 1922 in the United States.
Joe Winters was a 20-year-old African-American man who was lynched in Conroe, Montgomery County, Texas by a mob on May 20, 1922. According to the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary it was the 27th of 61 lynchings during 1922 in the United States.
Hullen Owens was an African-American man who was lynched in Texarkana, Bowie County, Texas by a white mob on May 19, 1922. According to a 1926 report by the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, this was the 26th of 61 lynchings during 1922 in the United States.
Robert "Bob" Collins was an African-American man who was lynched in Summit, Pike County, Mississippi by a mob of about 100 people on June 20, 1922. According to the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary it was the 32nd of 61 lynchings during 1922 in the United States.
Ed and his son George Hartley were lynched in Camden, Benton County, Tennessee by a mob on October 20, 1922. According to the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary they were the 54th and 55th of 61 lynchings during 1922 in the United States. The two were the only lynchings in the state of Tennessee and of the 61 lynchings they were 2 of 6 white victims.
Jesse Thomas was a 23-year-old, African-American man who was murdered in Waco, McLennan County, Texas by Sam Harris on May 26, 1922. A large mob then seized the body from the undertaker and burnt it in Waco's public square. The lynching of Jesse Thomas was the 10th lynching in 20-days in Texas and according to the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary it was the 30th of 61 lynchings during 1922 in the United States.
On December 11, 1922, George Gay was lynched in Streetman a town that straddles the border of Freestone and Navarro counties in Texas. He allegedly assaulted a young girl. According to the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary it was the 60th of 61 lynchings during 1922 in the United States.
Mr. Norman was an African-American man who was lynched in Texarkana, Miller County, Arkansas by masked men on February 11, 1922. According to the 1926 report of the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, this was the 12th of 61 lynchings during 1922 in the United States.
Filmore Watt Daniels [sic] and Thomas F. Richards [sic] were lynched near Mer Rouge, Morehouse Parish, Louisiana by black robed Ku Klux Klan members on August 24, 1922. According to the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary they were the 47th and 48th of 61 lynchings during 1922 in the United States. There were five lynchings in the state of Louisiana and of the 61 lynchings they were 2 of 6 white victims.
John Henry Harrison was a 38-year-old African-American man who was lynched in Malvern, Hot Spring County, Arkansas, by masked men on February 2, 1922. According to the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary it was the 10th of 61 lynchings in America and 1 of 5 lynchings in the State of Arkansas during 1922.