Lynching of George Johnson

Marker Text: On January 4, 1870, a mob of at least 50 white men lynched a Black man named George Johnson in Atchison, Kansas. Five days prior, Mr. Johnson had accidentally injured a white man while hunting. In fear of the retaliatory violence often inflicted on Black people by white mobs, Mr. Johnson fled the scene. Shortly after, Mr. Johnson surrendered himself to local authorities and was held in the jail at Sixth Street and Santa Fe. The county attorney indicated that criminal charges against Mr. Johnson for the shooting were unlikely because his only alleged crime was fleeing the scene. On January 4, it was rumored that a lynch mob was coming for Mr. Johnson that night, but law enforcement refused to take precautions in order to protect him. At 11:30 pm, the white mob entered the jail, with no resistance from the deputy on duty, and shot Mr. Johnson three times. Then the mob placed a rope around Mr. Johnson’s neck, beat him, and dragged him to the intersection of Fourth Street and Commercial Street, where the mob fired several more shots into Mr. Johnson’s body. Despite the gruesome torture, Mr. Johnson was still alive. The mob carried him to the Fifth Street Viaduct, where they hanged him. Even though a massive crowd of at least 2,000 witnesses was present, no one was ever indicted or held accountable for the lynching of George Johnson.