Thomas Moss, Calvin McDowell, and Will Stewart, all African-Americans and co-owners of People’s Grocery (located at this site), were arrested in connection with a disturbance near their store. Rather than being brought to trial, they were lynched on March 9, 1892. Moss’ dying words were, “Tell my people to go…
In the spring of 1892, one of the most violent public events in Nashville’s history occurred at this site. On April 24, 1892, two black men were accused of assaulting two white women near Goodlettsville. Henry Grizzard and Ephraim Grizzard, brothers, were arrested on suspicion, along with three other black…
A mob estimated at 3,000 people gathered near this spot on the night of July 22, 1893, with the intent of breaking into the Shelby County Jail and seizing Lee Walker, a black prisoner accused of attempting to rape a young white woman. Four days earlier, Mollie McCadden had reported…
The devastating Union County Jail Raid massacre was one example of how racial violence was designed to terrorize the Black community during Reconstruction. In early 1871, white mobs abducted 12 Black men from the county jail on January 4 and February 12. These men, Captain J. Alexander Walker, Charner Gorden,…
On the night of August 16, 1899, a white mob lynched an elderly African American man named Tom Keith after he was accused of falling asleep in the same room as white children. Mr. Keith, who was described in news reports as “old and trusted,” lived in the home of…
Lynchings by white mobs continued for decades as a tool of racial terrorism to maintain white supremacy. On June 26, 1889, a white mob lynched Andrew McKnight in a Black church cemetery near Kelton, after he was accused of making inappropriate comments towards white women. In January of 1900, Rufus…