Victim ID: VA1893061301
Victim Name: William Shorter
Race: Black
Sex: Male
Age: 19
Job: Unknown
Method of Death: Hanged and shot
Accusation: Criminal assault on a white woman
Date: 1893-06-13
City: Kernstown
Mob Composition: Unknown

Summary: On June 13^th, 1893, William Shorter, a 19-year-old African American man, was on a train on the way for his trial in Winchester, when he was taken from the train and lynched near Kernstown, in Frederick County. He had been accused of assaulting Miss Clevenger, a white woman, and had already escaped a previous attempt to be lynched.

On May 13^th, 1893, William Shorter was accused of attempting to commit a criminal assault upon Miss Clevenger, a white woman, near Stephenson in Frederick County (Alexandria Gazette). After Shorter was taken to jail in Winchester, there was an unsuccessful attempt to lynch him; Shorter was then taken to Staunton for safe-keeping. Shorter’s trial was scheduled to take place on June 13^th, 1893 in Winchester. On his way to Winchester on that day, “When the train pulled into the station at Kernstown it was surrounded by about a score of men, most of whom were masked and all heavily armed. Engineer Whetsel was covered with a revolver and ordered to hold the train. In the meantime, a dozen of the lynching party entered the passenger coach in which Shorter was chained to the seat, hand-cuffed and guarded by jailer Adam Forney. […] Upon the jailer’s refusing to give his prisoner up, the carseat was broken, a noose thrown around Shorter’s neck, and he was dragged from the car. He was taken but a few rods from the train, and the rope was adjusted to the limb of a tree, and, in full gaze of the passengers, he was swung up. He appealed for time to pray, but the lynchers turned a deaf ear. His body was riddled with bullets” (Alexandria Gazette). About an hour after the lynching, the sheriff and the Commonwealth’s Attorney arrived at the scene and summoned a Coroner’s jury; the jury concluded that William Shorter “died from strangulation and bullet wounds from the hands of parties unknown to the jury” (Alexandria Gazette). None of the witnesses were able to identify any of the lynchers.

The Richmond Planet condemned the lynching and criticized authorities for failing to prevent the murder of William Shorter and arrest the lynchers. The Planet also exhorted black men “to own a repeating rifle and use it when the occasion requires” to defend themselves and their communities from lynching mobs.

News Coverage: Alexandria Gazette, Richmond Dispatch, Richmond Planet, Roanoke Times, Shenandoah Herald, The Times

Article Link (from Alexandria Gazette published on 1893-06-14)
Article Link (from Roanoke Times published on 1893-06-14)
Article Link (from Roanoke Times published on 1893-06-15)
Article Link (from Roanoke Times published on 1893-06-17)
Article Link (from Shenandoah Herald published on 1893-06-16)