Lynching in America / The Lynching of Preston Porter, Jr.

Marker Text: On November 16, 1900, a white mob abducted a 15-year-old African American teenager named Preston Porter Jr. and lynched him near Limon, Colorado in Lincoln County. At least 300 people attended the public spectacle lynching of Preston, who was abandoned by state officials and law enforcement. Preston, along with his father and brother, came to Colorado from Kansas in 1900 and worked in Limon on railroad construction. That November the Porters began to return home. While in Denver on November 11, the Porters were stopped by Denver police, who questioned them about the murder of a white girl, Louise Frost, who had been found near Limon on November 8 and later died at home. The Porters denied any involvement, but the officers arrested and held them in the jail at the Denver City Hall. Suspicion focused on Preston, and police used coercive tactics to interrogate the child, including torturing him in a sweatbox and threatening to lynch his family if he did not confess. When Preston reportedly “confessed” on November 14, public calls for his lynching soon followed. Despite this, Denver officials decided to transfer young Preston back to Lincoln County by train. When the train reached Lake Station, just beyond Limon, a white mob seized Preston and waited hours for spectators to gather. The mob then chained his 105-pound body to a railroad stake and burned him to death. After Preston Porter Jr.’s lynching, no one was held accountable.