The Lynching of Samuel J. Bush

Marker Text: On June 3, 1893, a mob of 1,500 white people lynched a 30-year-old Black man named Samuel J. Bush across from the courthouse lawn in Decatur, Illinois. Mr. Bush was accused of assaulting two white women — one from Mt. Zion, a “sundown town”. He was charged and held at the Macon County Courthouse. Before he had a chance to defend himself in a court of law, a mob from Mt. Zion stormed the courthouse, and abducted him. Mr. Bush proclaimed, “Gentlemen, you are killing an innocent man.” The mob then dragged Mr. Bush here, at the intersection of Water & Wood St. According to newspapers he knelt to pray, calling on “Jesus to come and take his soul and forgive the men who were murdering him.” The mob then forced a naked Mr. Bush on top of a carriage and hanged him from a utility pole. Following his lynching, pieces of rope used to hang Mr. Bush were distributed to the crowd as “souvenirs,” and his body was made spectacle, displayed in a glass window for the masses of people that came to view his corpse. None of the perpetrators faced any legal consequences for the murder of Samuel J. Bush. Mr. Bush’s murder occurred during a time when charges of assault against Black people, even when made with unsubstantiated evidence, regularly aroused violent white mobs.