The Phoenix Massacre / Lynching in America
ID: SC1898110401
Name(s) of People Lynched: Wade Hampton McKinney, Jesse Williams, Columbus Jackson, Drayton Watts, George Logan, Essex Harrison, Ben Collins, Jeff Darling and Eliza Goode.
Number of People Lynched: 9
Race: Black
Gender: Male and Female
Lynching Date(s): 1898-11-9, 1898-11-10, 1898-11-14
Year Marker Erected: 2023
Erected by: Equal Justice Initiative, Greenwood County Community Remembrance Project
City: Greenwood
County: Greenwood
State: South Carolina
Marker Text: From November 9-14, 1898, white mobs in Phoenix lynched at least eight Black men and one Black woman and terrorized Black residents. The November 8 general election was the first since the enactment of the 1895 state constitution, which effectively barred Black people from voting. That morning at the local polling site, a white poll manager was killed and a prominent white supporter of Black voting rights was repeatedly shot during an altercation regarding the latter’s attempt to help Black men participate in the political process. Already enraged by the threat of Black political action, hundreds of white citizens immediately began to hunt down Black people they claimed were present. On November 9, a mob rounded up a group of Black people in the woods near Rehoboth United Methodist Church and fatally shot five: Wade Hampton McKinney, Jesse Williams, Columbus Jackson, Drayton Watts, and George Logan. Others were wounded or managed to flee. On November 10, a mob shot Essex Harrison in the heart in the same woods and dumped his body with the others. That day white mobs also lynched Ben Collins and Jeff Darling. On November 14, Eliza Goode, an elderly Black woman, was killed in her home by white men firing indiscriminately into houses on her street. No one was ever held accountable for their role in these brutal lynchings, and arbitrary beatings and whippings of Black people in the region continued for years afterward.
Sources: https://www.hmdb.org
Thank you for this information. I am a 64 year old American of Mexican descent. It is astounding to me, each and every time I stumble across important historical events ……if nothing more, than to hopefully never repeat such atrocities!
It is unthinkable the harm and injustice white men and women have perpetrated on Black people, Hispanics and Indigenous people. I have spent the last 5 yeras educating myself. This kind of hate destroys people’s souls. I heard a Black person say, “it is a good thing black people don’t want revenge. They only want JUSTICE! ” I am a white women in Marin County, CA.
History we were never taught. This was not taught in South Carolina History books.
I will look for the marker the next time I am in Greenwood. Hopefully someone can share the location.
Dear Randal, thank you for your comment. If you look at the markers dataset, it contains more information about this marker, including its address: 237 North Hospital Street, Greenwood SC 29646. Gianluca