| Part of Jim Crow Era | |
 Map of Georgia state highlighting Miller County | |
| Date | July 14, 1922 |
|---|---|
| Location | Miller County, Georgia |
| Participants | White mob |
| Deaths | Jake Davis |
Jake "Shake" Davis was a 62-year-old African-American man who was lynched in Miller County, Georgia by a white mob on July 14, 1922. According to the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary it was the 38th of 61 lynchings during 1922 in the United States. [1]
Miscegenation is the interbreeding of people who are considered to be members of different races and was heavily frowned upon in the American south. The historical taboo surrounding white–black relationships among American whites can be seen as a historical consequence of the oppression and racial segregation of African Americans. [2] [3] In many U.S. states, interracial marriage was already illegal when the term miscegenation was coined in 1863. Before that, it was called "amalgamation".
Interracial relationships were heavily frowned upon and legal bans on Interracial marriages weren't struck down until the Loving v. Virginia case. This was a landmark civil rights decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled, on June 12, 1967, that laws banning interracial marriage violate the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. [4] This case was necessary as bans on interracial relationships were not repealed like other Jim Crow laws by the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Local media reported that the well-known, 62-year-old African-American, Jake Davis had a relationship with white 26-year-old Ethel Skittel. This relationship resulted in a child. When the Miller County, Georgia community found out about this relationship a white mob gathered, seized Davis and hanged him. [5]
After the event the Miller County Liberal wrote that "hundreds of the citizens throughout the county regret this lynching. Many have said [Ethel Skittel] was guiltier than was Jake." [6]
The National Memorial for Peace and Justice opened in Montgomery, Alabama, on April 26, 2018. Featured among other things is the Memorial Corridor which displays 805 hanging steel rectangles, each representing the counties in the United States where a documented lynching took place and, for each county, the names of those lynched. [7] The memorial hopes that communities, like Miller County, Georgia where Jake Davis was lynched, will take these slabs and install them in their own communities.
Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1 (1967), was a landmark civil rights decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that laws banning interracial marriage violate the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The case involved Mildred Loving, a woman of color, and her white husband Richard Loving, who in 1958 were sentenced to a year in prison for marrying each other. Their marriage violated Virginia's Racial Integrity Act of 1924, which criminalized marriage between people classified as "white" and people classified as "colored". The Lovings appealed their conviction to the Supreme Court of Virginia, which upheld it. They then appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which agreed to hear their case.
Seaborn Anderson Roddenbery was a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives from the state of Georgia, known for his proposal of an anti-miscegenation amendment to the United States Constitution. He was elected to the 61st Congress to replace the deceased James M. Griggs, and re-elected to the 62nd and 63rd Congresses before dying in office.
Perez v. Sharp, also known as Perez v. Lippold or Perez v. Moroney, is a 1948 case decided by the Supreme Court of California in which the court held by a 4–3 majority that the state's ban on interracial marriage violated the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Pace v. Alabama, 106 U.S. 583 (1883), was a case in which the United States Supreme Court affirmed that Alabama's anti-miscegenation statute was constitutional. This ruling was rejected by the Supreme Court in 1964 in McLaughlin v. Florida and in 1967 in Loving v. Virginia. Pace v. Alabama is one of the oldest court cases in America pertaining to interracial sex.
Interracial marriage has been legal throughout the United States since at least the 1967 U.S. Supreme Court decision Loving v. Virginia (1967) that held that anti-miscegenation laws were unconstitutional via the 14th Amendment adopted in 1868. Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote in the court opinion that "the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides with the individual, and cannot be infringed by the State." Since Loving, several states repealed their defunct bans, the last of which was Alabama in a 2000 referendum. Interracial marriages have been formally protected by federal statute through the Respect for Marriage Act since 2022.
In the United States, anti-miscegenation laws were passed by most states to prohibit interracial marriage, and in some cases also prohibit interracial sexual relations. Some such laws predate the establishment of the United States, some dating to the later 17th or early 18th century, a century or more after the complete racialization of slavery. Nine states never enacted such laws; 25 states had repealed their laws by 1967, when the United States Supreme Court ruled in Loving v. Virginia that such laws were unconstitutional in the remaining 16 states. The term miscegenation was first used in 1863, during the American Civil War, by journalists to discredit the abolitionist movement by stirring up debate over the prospect of interracial marriage after the abolition of slavery.
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.
2000 Alabama Amendment 2, also known as the Alabama Interracial Marriage Amendment, was a proposed amendment to the Constitution of Alabama to remove Alabama's ban on interracial marriage. Interracial marriage had already been legalized nationwide 33 years prior in 1967, following Loving v. Virginia, making the vote symbolic. The amendment was approved with 59.5% voting yes, a 19 percentage point margin, though 25 of Alabama's 67 counties voted against it. Alabama was the last state to officially repeal its anti-miscegenation laws.
The Lynching of Jake Brooks occurred in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma on January 14, 1922.
Willie Lee Jenkins was lynched in Eufaula, Barbour County, Alabama. According to the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary it was the 3rd of 61 lynchings during 1922 in the United States.
Will Jones was an African-American man who was lynched in Ellaville, Schley County, Georgia by a white mob on February 13, 1922. According to the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary it was the 13th of 61 lynchings during 1922 in the United States.
William Byrd was an African-American man who was lynched in Brentwood, Wayne County, Georgia by a mob on May 28, 1922. According to the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary it was the 31st of 61 lynchings during 1922 in the United States.
Charles Atkins was a 15-year-old African-American boy who was lynched in Davisboro, Washington County, Georgia by a mob on May 18, 1922. According to the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary it was the 25th 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.
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.
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.
John West was a 50-year-old African-American man who was lynched in Guernsey, Hempstead County, Arkansas by a group of men on the Hope-Texarkana train on July 28, 1922. According to the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary it was the 41st of 61 lynchings during 1922 in the United States.
Bayner Blackwell was an African-American man who was lynched in Swansboro, Onslow County, North Carolina by a group of men on August 6, 1922. According to the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary it was the 44th of 61 lynchings during 1922 in the United States.
John "Cockey" Glover was a 35-year-old African-American man who was lynched in Holton in Bibb County, Georgia by a mob of 300 white men on August 2, 1922. According to the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary it was the 43rd of 61 lynchings during 1922 in the United States.
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.