Lynching of Alfred Blount

Last updated

On February 9, 1893, Alfred Blount, an African American and a Chattanooga native, was taken from his jail cell in the county jail and brutally beaten, stabbed, and hanged from the Walnut Street Bridge in Chattanooga, Tennessee. [1] Blount was charged with assault of a woman by the name of Mrs. M. A. Moore. Moore, 51 and widowed, claimed she was cleaning her house when a man entered through her back door requesting food. Moore, assuming it was a neighbor of hers, invited the man in and called out to her African-American house boy Sam to bring the man some food. [1] Upon realizing Sam's absence, Moore herself went into the kitchen to prepare food before reporting being grabbed by the arm and attacked by the man. After hitting the man with her hand, Moore fainted and laid unconscious in her house before recalling the incident to her neighbor, Mrs. DeRochement. [1]

Sheriff Skillern sent out a team of searchers to identify and arrest the suspected attacker. Within roughly half an hour of the report, Moore gave a physical description of her attacker and a search began. Blount was arrested shortly thereafter and imprisoned in the county jail. [1]

On the night of Alfred Blount's death, a theater nearby was playing tribute to the Spanish Carmencita. [1] During the opera, several local Chattanooga citizens surrounded the county jail and forcibly entered to Blount's jail cell. With heavy resistance from the on-guard officers, the mob broke open Blount's cell and took him away. Blount then was repeatedly assaulted, including stabbing, physical beating, and shot, on the Walnut Street Bridge before finally being lynched later into the night. [1] [2]

Alfred Blount was the second recorded African American to have been lynched in Chattanooga. [2] Further inquiries show lack of any sufficient evidence for Blount's conviction. [3]

Shortly after Blount's murder on February 9, Attorney General Brown sought to prosecute the mob that hanged Blount. [4] Alongside Attorney General Brown's investigation was Sheriff Skillern, who initially conducted the search for Mrs. Moore's attacker. Eventually, the investigation died out when local Judge Moon decided not to convene a jury. [4]

Following Alfred Blount's lynching, Blount's wife filed a suit against the city of Chattanooga in an effort to prevent further lynchings in the South. [2] Thirteen years after the Alfred Blount lynching, Ed Johnson was hanged from the Walnut Street Bridge for an alleged attack on a woman. [5]

Ed Johnson, like Alfred Blount, was forcibly dragged from his jail cell, beaten, and hanged from Walnut Bridge. [5] [6] Johnson, after over one hundred years was cleared of conviction by Chattanooga District Attorney Bill Cox. Like Blount, later research reveals a lack of sufficient evidence. [5] Johnson was given a stay of execution by Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States John Marshall Harlan just days before his attack and eventual murder.

Some Chattanooga citizens have called for the city to erect plaques memorializing Alfred Blount and Ed Johnson along Walnut Street Bridge. [7] Blount was lynched from the first half of the bridge and Johnson from the latter half. [5]

See also

Related Research Articles

Chattanooga, Tennessee City in Tennessee, United States

Chattanooga is a city in and the county seat of Hamilton County, Tennessee, along the Tennessee River bordering Georgia. The city also extends into Marion County on its western end. With a population of 181,099 in 2020, it is Tennessee's fourth-largest city and one of the two principal cities of East Tennessee, along with Knoxville. The city anchors the Chattanooga metropolitan area, Tennessee's fourth-largest metropolitan statistical area, as well as a larger three-state area that includes Southeast Tennessee, Northwest Georgia, and Northeast Alabama. Served by multiple railroads and Interstate highways, Chattanooga is a transit hub. It is 118 miles (190 km) northwest of Atlanta, Georgia, 112 miles (180 km) southwest of Knoxville, Tennessee, 134 miles (216 km) southeast of Nashville, Tennessee, 102 miles (164 km) east-northeast of Huntsville, Alabama, and 147 miles (237 km) northeast of Birmingham, Alabama.

Walnut Street Bridge (Chattanooga) United States historic place

Built in 1890, the 2,376 feet (724 m) Walnut Street Bridge connects Chattanooga, Tennessee's downtown with North Chattanooga. The bridge's main spans are pin-connected Pennsylvania through truss spans. The top chord of these truss spans are configured in five sections, making the spans similar to the Camelback truss design. The bridge is historically significant as an extremely long and old example of its type; according to the Historic American Engineering Record: "The bridge was apparently the first non-military highway bridge across the Tennessee River."

Mack Charles Parker was an African-American victim of lynching in the United States. He had been accused of raping a pregnant white woman in northern Pearl River County, Mississippi. Three days before he was to stand trial, Parker was kidnapped from his jail cell in the Pearl River County Courthouse by a mob, beaten and shot. His body was found in the Pearl River, 20 miles west of Poplarville, 10 days later. Following an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the men who killed him were released. Despite confessions, no one was ever indicted for the killing. Historian Howard Smead called the killing the "last classic lynching in America."

Olgiati Bridge Highway bridge in Chattanooga, Tennessee

The P. R. Olgiati Bridge, often incorrectly called the "Ol' Johnny" or "Ol' Jolly", is a steel girder bridge across the Tennessee River in Chattanooga, Tennessee completed in 1959. It is named for former mayor and long time political boss of Chattanooga, P.R. Olgiati. Chattanooga was a growing city during the 1950s. To expand the city and to allow more ways to cross the Tennessee River, the P. R. Olgiati Bridge was one of multiple bridges built. The route carries US 27 across the Tennessee river.

United States v. Shipp, 203 U.S. 563 (1906), was a ruling of the Supreme Court of the United States with regard to a lynching in Chattanooga, Tennessee. As of 2021, it remains the only Supreme Court criminal trial in history.

Veterans Memorial Bridge (Chattanooga)

The Veterans Memorial Bridge is a steel girder bridge in Chattanooga, Tennessee. It was built in 1984 and has a main span of 420 feet (130 m). It carries Georgia Avenue across the Tennessee River, and Audubon Island, an island in the river on which McClellan Animal Sanctuary is located. It is one of four bridges that cross the Tennessee River at downtown Chattanooga.

Andy Berke American attorney & politician

Andrew Lawrence Berke is an American attorney and politician from Tennessee. He served as the mayor of Chattanooga from 2013 to 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, he represented Hamilton and Marion counties in the 10th district as a state senator from 2007 to 2012. On March 5, 2013, he became Chattanooga's mayor-elect, winning more than 72% of the vote, and he was inaugurated on April 15, 2013. Berke was reelected on March 7, 2017 and served until April 19, 2021, when he was succeeded by Tim Kelly.

Lynching of Ed Johnson African American who was lynched in the U.S.

On March 19, 1906 a young African American man named Ed Johnson was murdered by a lynch mob in his home town of Chattanooga, Tennessee. He had been sentenced to death for the rape of Nevada Taylor, but Justice John Marshall Harlan of the United States Supreme Court had issued a stay of execution. To prevent delay or avoidance of execution, a mob broke into the jail where Johnson was held and lynched him.

Lynching of Laura and L. D. Nelson African-American mother and son who were lynched in the U.S.

Laura and L. D. Nelson were an African-American mother and son who were lynched on May 25, 1911, near Okemah, Okfuskee County, Oklahoma. They had been seized from their cells in the Okemah county jail the night before by a group of up to 40 white men, reportedly including Charley Guthrie, father of the folk singer Woody Guthrie. The Associated Press reported that Laura was raped. She and L. D. were then hanged from a bridge over the North Canadian River. According to one source, Laura had a baby with her who survived the attack.

Thomas Eric Watson is an American politician and police officer from Cleveland, Tennessee. From 2006 to 2014, he was a Republican member of the Tennessee House of Representatives for the 22nd district, encompassing Cleveland, Meigs County, Polk County, and parts of Bradley County. Watson served one term as sheriff of Bradley County from September 2014 to September 2018.

William Anthony Landry III is an actor, director and producer best known for The Heartland Series, a historical series on East Tennessee broadcast from WBIR-TV in Knoxville, Tennessee.

The United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Tennessee is the chief federal law enforcement officer in forty-one Tennessee counties. The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee has jurisdiction over all cases prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney. Doug Overbey, who was appointed by President Donald Trump in 2017, is the current U.S. Attorney for the District.

Claude Neal was a 23-year-old African-American farmhand who was arrested in Jackson County, Florida, on October 19, 1934, for allegedly raping and killing Lola Cannady, a 19-year-old white woman missing since the preceding night. Circumstantial evidence was collected against him, but nothing directly linked him to the crime. When the news got out about his arrest, white lynch mobs began to form. In order to keep Neal safe, County Sheriff Flake Chambliss moved him between multiple jails, including the county jail at Brewton, Alabama, 100 miles (160 km) away. But a lynch mob of about 100 white men from Jackson County heard where he was, and brought him back to Jackson County.

Lynching of John Evans African American who was lynched in the U.S.

On Tuesday, November 12, 1914, John Evans, a black man, was lynched in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States, by a mob of 1,500 white men, women and children. Evans was accused of the murder of Edward Sherman, a white real estate developer, and the attack of Sherman's wife, Mary. After word of the attack spread, and Mary Sherman claimed her attackers were "two negroes," a citywide search ensued. Suspicions immediately led to John Evans. Two days after the murder, a posse consisting of some of the city's most prominent and well-respected members stormed the St. Petersburg jail, threw a noose around Evans' neck and marched him to his death. He was never given a fair trial. Evans was hanged from a light post on the corner of Ninth Street South and Second Avenue. At first, he kept himself alive by wrapping his legs around the light pole. An unidentified white woman in a nearby automobile ended his struggle with a single bullet. Though the shot was fatal, the rest of the crowd began shooting at Evans' dangling body until their ammunition was depleted.

Lynching of Marie Thompson

The lynching of Marie Thompson of Shepherdsville took place in the early morning on June 15, 1904, in Lebanon Junction, Bullitt County, Kentucky, for her killing of John Irvin, a white landowner. The day before Thompson had attempted to defend her son from being beaten by Irvin in a dispute; he ordered her off the land. As she was walking away from him, he attacked her with a knife and she killed him in self-defense with a razor. She was arrested and put in the county jail.

George Armwood was lynched in Princess Anne, Maryland, on October 18, 1933. His murder was the last recorded lynching in Maryland.

Vision 2000 (Chattanooga)

Vision 2000 was a program created by the citizens of Chattanooga, Tennessee in the mid-to-late 1980s. It was envisioned as a process to visualize the city in the year 2000 by working to reverse the effects decades of major industrialization had had on the city by reversing both air and water pollution. The program also sought to establish businesses and parks that would attract tourists to the city.

Samuel "Mingo Jack" Johnson was an African-American man falsely accused of rape. He was brutally beaten and hanged by a mob of white men in Eatontown, New Jersey.

Lynching of Ephraim Grizzard African American man who was lynched in the U.S.

Ephraim Grizzard and Henry Grizzard were African-American brothers who were lynched in Middle Tennessee in April 1892 as suspects in the assaults on two white sisters. Henry Grizzard was hanged by a white mob on April 24 near the house of the young women in Goodlettsville, Tennessee.

Henry Choate was an African-American man who was lynched by a mob in Columbia, Tennessee, on November 13, 1927. Accused of having attacked a white girl, he was taken to the Columbia jail, from which a mob numbering hundreds of people sprang him. They killed him there, dragged him through the city behind a car, and than hanged the body from the courthouse.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "LYNCHED. Alfred Blount, a Negro, Suffers Death. Chattanooga 1893". www.darkfiber.com. Retrieved October 12, 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 "Mrs. Blount Sues Chattanooga Over Her Husband's Lynching, Chattanooga 1893". www.darkfiber.com. Retrieved October 12, 2015.
  3. ↑ "Cook: Why some Chattanoogans won't walk across Walnut Street Bridge". timesfreepress.com. Retrieved October 12, 2015.
  4. 1 2 "Blount's Lynching Dissolves The Colored Foundry Scheme, Chattanooga 1893". www.darkfiber.com. Retrieved October 12, 2015.
  5. 1 2 3 4 "Cook: Before you look at Ferguson, take a good look at Chattanooga". timesfreepress.com. Retrieved October 12, 2015.
  6. ↑ Yellin, Emily (February 27, 2000). "Lynching Victim Is Cleared of Rape, 100 Years Later". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved October 12, 2015.
  7. ↑ "Cook: Why some Chattanoogans won't walk across Walnut Street Bridge". timesfreepress.com. Retrieved October 12, 2015.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.