Lynching in America / The Lynching of Thomas Smith

Marker Text: On September 21, 1893, a white mob lynched a young Black man named Thomas Smith in Roanoke, Virginia. The day before, Mr. Smith was accused of assaulting a white woman near the Roanoke City Market. During this era, Black people were burdened with a presumption of guilt that often led to hasty police action, which was regularly followed by lethal mob violence. Mr. Smith was arrested and placed in the city jail where a mob of at least 4,000 white people gathered. Aware of the impending violence, the Mayor of Roanoke summoned the local militia and police officers removed Mr. Smith from the jail. Though legally required to protect Mr. Smith, the officers removed Mr. Smith from the jail for only a few hours before they handed him over to the mob. Members of the mob dragged Mr. Smith to the corner of Franklin Road and Mountain Avenue where the hanged him from a hickory tree and riddled his body with bullets. The crowd of white people gathered at the site and cut off pieces of Mr. Smith’s clothing, the rope, and the tree to carry away as souvenirs. They then took Mr. Smith’s body nearby to the bank of the Roanoke River and burned his corpse atop a pile of wood in front of more than 4,000 cheering men, women, and children while Mr. Smith’s 15-year-old sister watched. Although thousands of spectators participated and many photographs were produced, no one was ever held accountable for the lynching of Thomas Smith.