Lynching in America / The Lynching of Robert Johnson

Marker Text: On January 30, 1934, Robert Johnson, a 40-year-old Black man, was lynched in Tampa. Two days earlier, Mr. Johnson had been wrongly arrested by the Hillsborough County constable after a white woman reported an assault. The next day, Tampa law enforcement officers confirmed Mr. Johnson’s innocence and cleared him of any connection to the assault. However, rather than releasing Mr. Johnson, law enforcement officials turned Mr. Johnson over to an armed white man in the middle of the night who had no legal authority. This man was the brother of the Hillsborough County constable and falsely claimed to be a “deputy constable.” A few hours later, he reported a mob lynching of Mr. Johnson, and Mr. Johnson’s body was found shot to death near the Hillsborough River at Sligh Avenue. A coroner’s jury concluded that no mob members could be identified and also that the constable’s brother was not responsible for the murder. During this era, it was common for lynch mobs to forcibly kidnap their victims from police custody and also for law enforcement to actively participate in lynchings. This created a climate of racial terror from which Black people had no protection. In the end, no one was ever held accountable for lynching Robert Johnson. The racial terror violence and injustice that occurred in this community must never be forgotten.