Lynching in America / Mob Violence in Lithonia

Marker Text: After Reconstruction was abandoned in 1877, white mobs from Lithonia terrorized the Black community through lynchings that denied Black people their constitutional rights and equal protection under the law. On July 27, 1887, a white mob from Lithonia lynched Reuben Hudson near the Georgia Railroad stop in Redan. Mr. Hudson lived in Covington but worked in Redan. On July 26th, a white woman in Redan reported being assaulted by a “short and heavy set, and very black” man. Low on train fare that day, Mr. Hudson walked 11 miles from Redan to Conyers and boarded a train closer to home. A conductor presumed Mr. Hudson fit the woman’s description and had him arrested in Covington. The next morning, as police officers escorted Mr. Hudson back to Redan by train, an angry mob of white men boarded at Lithonia, intent on lynching him. Though legally required to protect Mr. Hudson, the officers handed him over to the mob in Redan without resistance. Despite his pleas of innocence, the mob dragged and tortured Mr. Hudson before hanging him to a tree. Five years later, on April 2, 1892, a white mob from Lithonia began to chase two unidentified Black men after a young white girl reported an assault. When the mob returned to Lithonia without the men, it was reported that “it was generally understood that they were lynched.” Despite a functioning legal system in DeKalb County, mob participants were not held accountable for these lynchings.