The Lynching of George Taylor

Marker Text: On November 5, 1918, George Taylor, a Black man, was brutally lynched by a mob of 300 white people near Rolesville. A week prior, a white woman reported being assaulted, and officers arrested Mr. Taylor on the morning of November 5 despite lacking any evidence tying him to the alleged offense. Almost 25% of lynchings involved allegations of inappropriate behavior between a Black man and a white woman that was characterized as “assault.” The mere accusation of sexual impropriety regularly aroused violent mobs and ended in lynching. The officers bound Mr. Taylor and drove him to Rolesville with “a pistol pressing against his ribs.” The woman who reported the assault initially stated that Mr. Taylor was not the perpetrator after he had been arrested before changing her story later in the day. As officers started to drive Mr. Taylor to Raleigh, four hooded white men with shotguns stopped the car and seized Mr. Taylor. A large mob, which included children, gathered as he was taken to a field near Buffalo Creek. The mob tortured Mr. Taylor, hanged him from a tree, mutilated his body, and shot him with over 100 bullets. Crowds of white people from local towns came to view Mr. Taylor’s body, which was left hanging overnight, and some retrieved bullets from the lynching site to keep as “souvenirs.” Despite numerous witnesses, a jury claimed it was unable to identify any mob members. No one was ever held accountable for lynching George Taylor.