Lynching in America / Lynching in Tuscaloosa County

Marker Text: Terror lynching in Tuscaloosa County went unaddressed for decades, devastating the African American community. In December 1889, Bud Wilson was taken from police by a white mob that hung and fatally shot him after he was alleged to have entered the home of a white woman. This lynching followed that of Andy Burke, who was taken from the Tuscaloosa Jail and killed by a mob in 1884. Charles McKelton and John Johnson were removed from police custody by a white mob and hanged from a tree in Romulus on February 11, 1892. On July 12, 1898, over 100 white farmers hung and fatally shot Sidney Johnson near Coaling after he was accused of assaulting two white women. When a black man named John Durrett denounced the mob killing, a white mob surrounded Mr. Durrett’s home three days later on July 15 and lynched him. Lynchings continued in Tuscaloosa County well into the 20th century. On March 13, 1919, a mob of white men abducted Cicero Cage, a black teenager, near the town of Ralph and lynched him. None of the men who lynched Cicero Cage was ever held accountable. The boy’s father, Sam Cage, found his son dead with his throat “literally cut to pieces.” On September 24, 1933, after being accused of attempting to assault a white woman near the Tuscaloosa Country Club, Dennis Cross was shot to death by a group of white men who came to his home posing as police officers. The county sheriff later stated that the woman whom Mr. Cross was accused of assaulting had, in fact, never been attacked at all.