Lynching in America / The Lynching of John Humphries

Marker Text: On July 15, 1888, a mob of 25 to 40 white men lynched John Humphries, a Black teenager. On July 14, the daughter of a white. suburban planter reported being assaulted in the woods. Race-based suspicion was immediately directed towards Black men and boys. Later that evening, without any evidence connecting him to the report, police arrested teenaged John Humphries. Police officers forced John to change into a striped shirt and remove his shoes so that he would fit the description of the alleged assailant before they took him to the white planter’s home, where a false identification was obtained. John was then jailed. The following morning. a masked mob broke into the jail and law enforcement unlocked the cell doors, allowing the mob to forcibly remove John Humphries. The mob then lynched John by hanging him from a tree within a few hundred yards of the jail. White mobs regularly displayed complete disregard for the legal system and the constitutional rights of their Black victims. Law enforcement routinely failed to protect black people in their custody. even though they had a legal obligation to do so. As in this case, officers sometimes directly assisted or even participated in lynchings. Although two people—including the sheriff—identified the name of a mob member, no one was ultimately held accountable for the racial terror lynching of John Humphries.