The Lynching of George Tompkins

Marker Text: On March 16, 1922, George Tompkins, a young Black man, was brutally lynched in Riverside Park in Indianapolis. Mr. Tompkins migrated to the city two years prior from Frankfort, Kentucky, and earned a living working in a glass factory. In the afternoon of March 16, Mr. Tompkins’s body was discovered in a wooded area of Riverside Park leaned against a small sapling with a rope around his neck tied to branches above. Based on the evidence, the coroner stated he believed Mr. Tompkins had been strangled to death and that his attackers had bound his hands and dragged him to the sapling, where, according to a local newspaper, his body was left as a “warning” to other Black community members. Police officials disregarded these findings, refusing to launch a full investigation into the killing or to attempt to identify the perpetrators. Instead, they labeled Mr. Tompkins’s death a “suicide,” despite the coroner and even some members of the police concluding it was “impossible” he had taken his own life. In this era, it was common for white authorities to label the racially motivated killings of Black people as suicides to forestall investigations, prevent negative publicity, and shield mob members from legal repercussions. White press also did little to uncover details about this killing, and elected officials refused to acknowledge or address the racial violence that terrorized Black residents. No one was ever held accountable for lynching George Tompkins.