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…
In Abbeville on Saturday, October 21, 1916, a white mob lynched a black leader named Anthony Crawford for cursing a white man. A 56-year-old planter, “Grandpa” Crawford owned 427 acres of land, had 13 children, and helped establish a school, a church, and farms in the local black community. During…
The Willie Earle lynching was the last recorded in S.C. and one of the last in the South. On the night of February 15, 1947, white cabdriver Thomas W. Brown was found mortally wounded beside his cab in Pickens County. Earle, a young black man, was thought to be Brown’s…
This Beaux Arts building, built in 1916-18, was the fourth Greenville County Courthouse, from 1918 to 1950. It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1994. The largest lynching trial in U.S. history was held here May 12-21, 1947. Willie Earle, a young black man accused of…