| Lynching of Amos Miller | |
|---|---|
| Location | Williamson County Courthouse, Franklin, Tennessee, U.S. |
| Coordinates | 35°55′29″N86°52′08″W / 35.92472°N 86.86889°W |
| Date | August 10, 1888 about 10 a.m. |
Attack type | Lynching |
| Victims | Amos Miller |
| Part of a series on the |
| Nadir of American race relations |
|---|
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Amos Miller was a 23-year-old African-American man who was lynched from the balcony of the Williamson County Courthouse in Franklin, Tennessee, on August 10, 1888.
Miller was accused of raping Mrs. Scott, a 50-year-old white woman, near Santa Fe [1] in Maury County on June 9 [2] or 10, 1888. [3] Miller worked as a farmhand on the Scott farm in Maury County; the Scotts had a daughter. [2] Miller, who was 23 years old, was described by The Daily American as "a heavy-built, very dark negro". [2]
Miller was arrested on June 16 at the home of Marshal Roberts, where he allegedly tried to steal a hat after he had lost his. [1] Miller reportedly confessed to the assault, and was jailed in Columbia. [2] On the same day, a mob threatened to lynch him. [2] As a result, he was transferred to the jail in Franklin on June 17, but once again, a mob threatened to lynch him. [2] He was transferred to a third location: the Davidson County Jail in Nashville. [2]
Miller's trial was postponed twice because of these threats. [2] On August 9, one day before the trial, a mob came from Maury County to Franklin. [2] The next morning, some of the mob were in the public square, others on horseback, and others in the courthouse. [2] Miller was taken to Franklin by train and entered the courthouse. [2] His lawyers asked to change the location of the trial or postpone it again, but Judge McAlister rejected this and decided to continue the proceedings. [2]
During the trial, a mob of 40 men entered the courthouse and, with other men who were already in the building, forced Miller out of the room. [2] The men proceeded to hang Miller from the railings of the courthouse balcony at about 10 am. [4] [5] [6]
Law enforcement reportedly were unable to identify the lynchers "notwithstanding the fact that not one of the mob was disguised". [3]
Williamson County is a county in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 247,726. The county seat is Franklin, and the county is located in Middle Tennessee. The county is named after Hugh Williamson, a North Carolina politician who signed the U.S. Constitution. Williamson County is part of the Nashville-Davidson–Murfreesboro–Franklin, TN Metropolitan Statistical Area. In the 19th century, tobacco and hemp were cultivated here, and planters also raised warm-blooded livestock, including horses and cattle.
Maury County is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee, in the Middle Tennessee region. As of the 2020 census, the population was 100,974. Its county seat is Columbia. Maury County is part of the Nashville-Davidson–Murfreesboro–Franklin, TN metropolitan statistical area.
Columbia is a city in and the county seat of Maury County, Tennessee. The population was 41,690 as of the 2020 United States census. Columbia is included in the Nashville metropolitan area.
Franklin is a city in and the county seat of Williamson County, Tennessee, United States. About 21 miles (34 km) south of Nashville, it is one of the principal cities of the Nashville metropolitan area and Middle Tennessee. As of 2020, its population was 83,454. It is the seventh-most populous city in Tennessee. Franklin is known to be the home of many celebrities, mostly country music stars like Billy Ray Cyrus and Pop Singer Miley Cyrus.
Mack Charles Parker was a Black 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."
James Cordie Cheek was a 17-year-old African-American youth who was lynched by a white mob in Maury County, Tennessee near the county seat of Columbia. After being falsely accused of attempting to rape a young white girl, Cheek was released from jail when the grand jury did not indict him, due to lack of evidence. The county magistrate and two other men from Maury County abducted Cheek from Nashville, where he was staying with relatives near Fisk University, took him back to the county, and turned him over to a lynch mob. The mob mutilated Cheek and murdered him by hanging. A grand jury declined to indict anyone for the murder of Cheek.
On March 19, 1906, Ed Johnson, a young African American man, was murdered by a lynch mob in his home town of Chattanooga, Tennessee. He had been wrongfully 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 abducted and lynched him from the Walnut Street Bridge.
In Forsyth County, Georgia, in September 1912, two separate alleged attacks on white women in the Cumming area resulted in black men being accused as suspects. First, a white woman reportedly awoke to find a black man in her bedroom; then days later, a white teenage girl was beaten and raped, later dying of her injuries.
Raymond Arthur Byrd was an African-American farmhand who was lynched by a mob in Wythe County, Virginia on August 15, 1926.
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.
Samuel Smith was a 15-year-old African-American youth who was lynched by a white mob, hanged and shot in Nolensville, Tennessee, on December 15, 1924. No one was ever convicted of the lynching.
David Jones was an African-American man who was lynched in Nashville, Tennessee on March 25, 1872 after being arrested as a suspect in a killing. He was mortally wounded while in jail, shot twice in the back while resisting white mob members who came to take him out; the whites pulled him into the Public Square and hanged him from a post outside the police station, with a crowd of an estimated 2,000 in attendance. The sheriff interrupted the hanging and took Jones down. Taken back to the jail, Jones died of his injuries on April 9, 1872.
Jim Taylor was an African-American man who was lynched on April 30, 1891 in Franklin, Tennessee.
The Williamson County Courthouse in Franklin, Tennessee is a historic courthouse. It is a contributing building in the Franklin Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Jo Reed was an African American man who was lynched in Nashville, Tennessee, on April 30, 1875, where he was taken by a white mob from the county jail after being arrested for killing a police officer in a confrontation. He was hanged from a suspension bridge but, after the rope broke, Reed survived the attempted lynching, escaped via the river, and left Nashville to go West.
The lynching of Paul Reed and Will Cato occurred in Statesboro, Georgia on August 16, 1904. Five members of a white farm family, the Hodges, had been murdered and their house burned to hide the crime. Paul Reed and Will Cato, who were African-American, were tried and convicted for the murders. Despite militia having been brought in from Savannah to protect them, the two men were taken by a mob from the courthouse immediately after their trials, chained to a tree stump, and burned. In the immediate aftermath, four more African-Americans were shot, three of them dying, and others were flogged.
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.
Henry Choate was an 18-year-old African-American teenager who was lynched by a mob in Columbia, Tennessee, on November 13, 1927. Choate was accused of having assaulted 16-year old Sarah Harlan, a white girl, and was taken to the Columbia jail, despite Harlan not being able to identify Choate as the attacker. A mob numbering hundreds of people sprang him from the jail, dragged him through the city behind a car, and then hanged him from the courthouse. During the lynching, Harlan's mother begged the mob to spare Choate's life. A grand jury declined to file any charges.
Julius Morgan was an American criminal who was the first prisoner executed by the electric chair in Tennessee, after being convicted for the rape of a twenty-year-old woman. He claimed to have served one year in an Arkansas prison for assault before escaping to Tennessee. Morgan unsuccessfully sought clemency from the Tennessee Supreme Court and Governor Thomas Clarke Rye before admitting his guilt at his execution.
In 1888, Amos Miller, a black man accused of raping a white woman, was dragged from court in Franklin and hung from the courthouse railings.