The Lynching of Dave Hurst

Marker Text: On November 14, 1920, a large white mob lynched a 25-year-old Black coal miner named Dave Hurst. Authorities had arrested Mr. Hurst two days earlier after a white woman reported that she had been assaulted by a Black man. During this era, the deep racial hostility that permeated Southern society burdened Black people with a presumption of guilt that often served to focus suspicion on Black communities after a crime was reported or discovered, whether evidence supported that suspicion or not. In the early morning hours of November 14, a white mob broke into the Wise County Jail, kidnapped Mr. Hurst, and drove him to a bridge about two miles near here, where they hanged him with a log chain. Afterwards, the mob shot his body repeatedly and then dragged Mr. Hurst’s remains by car to Blackwood. His clothes were torn off and his body was bruised and disfigured by the bullets. Although two white men were tried and convicted for participating in the mob, the governor of Virginia pardoned the men in 1923. None of the other dozens to hundreds of mob participants faced any legal repercussions for their roles in the lynching of Dave Hurst. More than 84 racial terror lynchings have been documented in Virginia, including at least three victims in Wise County.