Thomas Williams was an African-American man who was lynched by a mob in Memphis, Tennessee, on September 28, 1927. [1]
John R. Steelman, who wrote his PhD dissertation on "mob action in the South", listed Williams as one of the cases, and said "'The bullet-riddled body of Thomas Williams, alleged to have attacked a fifty-year old white woman, was found in Pleasant Union Churchyard, two miles from the scene of the crime' - near Memphis." [2]
Parkdale is a town in Ashley County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 277 at the 2010 census.
Chiefland is a city in Levy County, Florida, United States. The population was 2,245 at the 2010 census. Chiefland calls itself the "Gem of the Suwannee Valley" and was incorporated in 1929.
Columbia is a city in and the county seat of Maury County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 41,690 as of the 2020 United States census. Columbia is included in the Nashville metropolitan area.
John Roy Steelman was the first person to serve as "The Assistant to the President of the United States", in the administration of President Harry S. Truman from 1946 to 1953. The office later became the White House Chief of Staff.
South Memphis, one of the oldest portions of Memphis, Tennessee, is a community stretching from Midtown and Downtown to the Mississippi state line. In its early days, it was primarily an agrarian community. South Memphis has many well-known neighborhoods including Whitehaven, Lauderdale Sub, Longview, Riverside, Lakeview Gardens, Prospect Park, Dukestown, Gaslight Square, Wilbert Heights, Mallory Heights, Dixie Heights, Barton Heights, Elliston Heights, Handy Holiday, Chickasaw Village, Pine Hill, Indian Hills, Bunker Hill, Westwood, Boxtown, West Junction, Walker Homes, Coro Lake, Nehemiah, and French Fort. Many of these neighborhoods are considered home to many famous hip hop/R&B singers and rappers. Many locations in South Memphis are also considered a hotbed for crime and violence due to the high amount of gang influence and the overall poverty level of the area. But South Memphis is known for its plentiful houses of worship including Mt. Vernon Baptist Church Westwood, St. Andrew AME Church, Washington Chapel CME Church, East Trigg Baptist Church, White's Chapel AME Church, Union Valley Baptist Church, Enon Springs Baptist Church, Warner Temple AME Zion Church, Unity Baptist Church, Ford's Chapel AME Zion Church, St. Augustine Catholic Church, and Monumental Baptist Church, just naming a few.
WDIA is a radio station based in Memphis, Tennessee. Active since 1947, it soon became the first radio station in the United States that was programmed entirely for African Americans. It featured black radio personalities; its success in building an audience attracted radio advertisers suddenly aware of a "new" market among black listeners. The station had a strong influence on music, hiring musicians early in their careers, and playing their music to an audience that reached through the Mississippi Delta to the Gulf Coast.
The Diocese of Memphis is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church consisting of the counties of Tennessee to the west of the Tennessee River. The diocese is split into two deaneries. The Memphis Deanery encompasses twenty-eight (28) parishes in Shelby County. The Jackson Deanery encompasses fourteen (14) parishes and five (5) missions in the other 20 counties in the diocese. The diocesan cathedral is the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Memphis. The Diocese of Memphis is a suffragan diocese in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Louisville.
Memphis National Cemetery is a United States National Cemetery located in the Nutbush neighborhood in northeast Memphis, Tennessee. Administered by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, it encompasses 44.2 acres (17.9 ha), and as of the end of 2007, had 42,184 interments.
The City of Memphis is located on the eastern bank of the Mississippi River in the southwest corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the regional hub for a tri-state area of Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee.
Ell Persons was an African-American man who was lynched on 22 May 1917, after he was accused of having raped and decapitated a 15-year-old white girl, Antoinette Rappel, in Memphis, Tennessee, United States. He was arrested and was awaiting trial when he was captured by a lynch party, who burned him alive and scattered his remains around town, throwing his head at a group of African Americans. A large crowd attended his lynching, which had the atmosphere of a carnival. No one was charged as a result of the lynching, which was described as one of the most vicious in American history, but it did play a part in the foundation of the Memphis chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
Joseph Upchurch was an African-American man who was lynched by a mob near Paris, Tennessee, on June 17, 1927.
Joe Smith was an African-American man who was lynched by a mob in Yazoo City, Mississippi, on July 7, 1927.
Albert Williams was an African-American man who was lynched by a mob in Chiefland, Florida, on July 21, 1927.
Thomas Bradshaw was an African-American man who was lynched by a mob in Bailey, North Carolina, in August 1927.
Winston Pounds was an African-American man who was lynched by a mob in Wilmot, Arkansas, on August 25 or 26, 1927.
Earnest Williams was an African-American man who was lynched by a mob in Parkdale, Ashley County, Arkansas, in 1908. John R. Steelman, who wrote his PhD dissertation on "mob action in the South", listed Williams as one of the cases, and said "Earnest Williams was thrust into eternity by a band of men who were 'outraged' at him for 'using offensive language'."
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.
Leonard Woods was a black American man who was lynched by a mob in Pound Gap, on the border between Kentucky and Virginia, after they broke him out from jail in Whitesburg, Kentucky, on November 30, 1927. Woods was alleged to have killed the foreman of a mine, Herschel Deaton. A mob of people from Kentucky and Virginia took him from the jail and away from town and hanged him, and riddled his body with shots. The killing, which became widely publicized, was the last in a long line of extrajudicial murders in the area, and, prompted by the activism of Louis Isaac Jaffe and others, resulted in the adoption of strong anti-lynching legislation in Virginia.