The Lynchings of Marshall Boston and John Maxey

Marker Text: In Franklin County, white mobs lynched at least six Black people between the end of the Civil War and 1950. Two of these victims were lynched here at the Singing Bridge. In the early morning hours of August 15, 1894, a white mob hanged a Black man named Marshall Boston on the bridge and riddled his body with bullets. On the previous day, Mr. Boston had been accused of assaulting a white woman and was arrested that afternoon. Before Mr. Boston had the opportunity to defend himself in a court of law, a mob of white men battered down the doors at the jail in Frankfort around midnight, kidnapped Mr. Boston from his cell with the sheriff and the jailor present, beat him, and hanged him on the iron bridge before shooting over 100 bullets into his body. Fifteen years later, on June 3, 1909, a mob of armed white men lynched a Black man named John Maxey after having abducted him from the jail, where he was detained after being accused of shooting a white man. At approximately 2:30 am, the mob broke into the jail, abducted Mr. Maxey, and marched him to the bridge where they attempted to hang him twice in front of a crowd of around 200 people, who were gathered near the west side of the bridge to witness the lynching. After the rope broke during the attempted hangings, the white mob forced Mr. Maxey to climb up the girders of the bridge and pushed him to his death. No one was held accountable for the lynchings of Marshall Boston or John Maxey.