Lynching of Erastus Brown

Marker Text: In the pre-dawn hours of July 10, 1897, an armed mob of white men brutally lynched Erastus Brown, a Black husband and father of two, near the Bourbeuse River Bridge in Union, Missouri. Mr. Brown was no more than 20 years old at the time of his death. On July 2, Mr. Brown left his home to retrieve medicine for his sick infant child. While on this journey, he was accused of hitting a white woman with a rock. Mr. Brown was arrested shortly after the accusation, with no evidence tying him to the alleged crime, and placed in the Union County Jail. On July 10, an armed lynch mob of approximately forty prominent white farmers traveled to Union on horseback. The mob stormed the jail, with no resistance from the officers on duty, dragged Mr. Brown to the bridge, and hanged him from a nearby willow tree. Though several community members in Union, including the county prosecutor, either saw or interacted with the mob, no one was willing to identify members of the mob to local authorities after the lynching of Mr. Brown. The local sheriff stated that there was “no use” in investigating the lynching. Like nearly all lynching victims, Mr. Brown was killed without legal intervention or protection from a white mob that was not held accountable for his death. Tragically, Mr. Brown’s infant child died two days after his lynching.