Lynching in America / Lynching in Gainesville

Marker Text: White mobs lynched at least four Black men in Gainesville between 1877 and 1950 in complete disregard for the legal system and their constitutional rights. On February 17, 1891, a white mob abducted Tony Champion from his jail cell and hanged him from a tree near NE 6th Street. Just six months later, on August 24, 1891, a white mob seized Andrew Ford from jail and lynched him from the same tree. Law enforcement often failed to protect Black people in their custody from mob violence, despite their legal obligation to do so. On November 26, 1896, a deputy sheriff was complicit in handing Alfred Daniels over to a white mob that hanged him and riddled his body with bullets. Facing little to no resistance, white perpetrators of racially motivated violence were emboldened to attack Black people with impunity. On March 21, 1942, white men fatally shot a Black farmer named Lester Watts in front of his wife in an attack near University Ave. After slavery ended, lethal violence against Black people intensified, and lynch mob violence emerged as a tool of racial control. Even before the 12-year period of Reconstruction ended in 1877, and the federal government withdrew protection for Black people in the South, white mobs in Gainesville lynched at least eight Black people. As in the Reconstruction-era lynchings, no one was ultimately held accountable for lynching of Mr. Champion, Mr. Ford, Mr. Daniels, or Mr. Watts.