Lynching in America / Lynching in Madison County

Marker Text: Between 1877 and 1950, there were at least 237 lynchings in the state of Tennessee. These were acts of terrorism against the African American community. In Madison County on August 16, 1886, Eliza Woods, a black domestic worker, was accused of poisoning her white employer. That night, a mob stormed the jail, dragged Ms. Woods to the courthouse and ripped her clothes off. Although Ms. Woods declared her innocence, she was hanged from a tree and her body riddled with bullets. Ida B. Wells, who would become a leading anti-lynching crusader, protested the lynching of Eliza Woods many times in her writing. Five years later, John Brown and three other African Americans were passengers on an Illinois Central Railroad train. News reports accused Mr. Brown of severely injuring the switchman. Mr. Brown was arrested and at midnight on July 26, 1891, was forcibly taken from the jail by a mob of 500 masked men armed with rifles and lynched in the courthouse yard. Neither Eliza Woods or John Brown received due process for their alleged crimes and were killed by mobs who never faced prosecution for their lynchings.