Victim ID: VA1899080801
Victim Name: Benjamin Thomas
Race: Black
Sex: Male
Age: 16
Job: Unknown
Method of Death: Beaten, hanged and shot
Accusation: Attempted criminal assault on a 8 year-old white girl
Date: 1899-08-08
City: Alexandria
Mob Composition: About 2,000
Summary: On August 8th 1899, Benjamin Thomas, a 16-year-old black teenager, also known as Benjamin Thompson, was lynched in Alexandria for allegedly attempting to criminally assault an eight year-old white girl.
On August 7th, 1899, Lilian Clarke, the 8-year-old daughter of Edward and Julia Clarke, told the Alexandria police that she was walking by the house of Benjamin Thomas, when he grabbed her, dragged her inside the house and attempted to assault her, even though he was “not entirely successful” (Evening Star). Benjamin Thomas was arrested and charged for attempting to criminally assault Lilian Clarke (Alexandria Gazette). When the information became generally known to the public, the white community of Alexandria became enraged. On the evening of August 8th, “Chief of Police Webster, with a force of four regular officers and twenty sworn citizens was detailed to guard the prisoner. Meanwhile, as time advanced, the situation became easy to read. Every gunshop and hardware store in town was visited, and in a short while it was impossible to find a spare weapon anywhere. Citizens walked the streets with protruding pockets, and many went so far as to shoulder rifles and shotguns” (Evening Star). Unfounded rumors that “the negroes were arming for combat, fired the whites with a stern determination. About 11 o’clock, as if by premeditated and concerted plan, hundreds of [white] men turned in the direction of the city jail” (Evening Star). A mob of 2,000 white citizens stormed the city jail to capture Benjamin Thomas. The jail was a low stone structure on North St. Asaph Street. The mob completely surrounded the building. Despite several city officials calling upon the people to uphold the letter of the law, the crowd persisted. Several dozen men actually penetrated the jail, overpowered the jailers and entered Thomas’ cell. A rope was put around his neck and was dragged through the large mob. He suffered a non-fatal gunshot wound and was bleeding while being taken through the crowd. The crowd got a good look at him as he walked by and confirmed he was the assailant. Thomas fought to be free, and in the struggle every particle of clothing was removed from him. The Evening Star reports that “his cries and moans were heartrending, but the mob was relentless.” The crowd reached Fairfax Street and the demeanor changed. The crowd drew silent to watch. Benjamin Thomas was hung to a lamp post and quickly riddled with bullets. Someone in the crowd ordered his body burn. Some rushed to the body after he was dead to collect relics.
The coroner’s jury stated “we, the jury, find that Benjamin Thomas came to his death by the hands of a mob, the members of which are unknown to the jury, immediate cause of death was a gunshot wound of the heart” (Evening Star). Benjamin Thomas’s mother, Elizabeth, “refused to receive [his] remains at her home. She could not bear to look upon her boy, she said, and would have nothing to do with his funeral” (Evening Star). The Richmond Planet denounced the lynching and harshly criticized the Mayor of Alexandria and the local police force for their failure to protect Benjamin Thomas from the lynching mob.
In 2021, the City of Alexandria unveiled an historic marker at the site of the lynching. The marker reads: ” Close to midnight on Tuesday, August 8, 1899, Benjamin Thomas, a 16-year-old Black Alexandrian, was lynched from a lamppost on this corner. Earlier, white rioters attacked the City Jail on N. St. Asaph Street, where they seized and dragged Thomas for a half-mile on a cobblestone street, hitting him with bricks, iron, and stones, as he cried out for his mother. Under the shadow of City Hall and the police station, he was stabbed, kicked, shot, and hanged. On Monday, August 7, 1899, police had arrested Thomas on the word of an eight-year-old white neighbor and charged him with assaulting her. When Alexandria’s Black community learned of Thomas’ arrest, they feared another lynching. Two years earlier, a white mob murdered a local Black teenager, Joseph McCoy, based on similar allegations. Attempting to protect Thomas from such a fate, groups of Black men organized, offering their aid to police. The police and Alexandria’s mayor, George Simpson, ridiculed their concerns. Mayor Simpson stood on the steps of the jail and asked the mob to leave, saying “Fellow citizens, if you will disperse and go away quietly, I will promise you that a court will be convened today…. If this is not done, I will give you my word, as a man of honor, that I will personally lead a mob tomorrow night to lynch Thomas….” The police arrested many in the Black community that night and the mayor sentenced them to heavy fines or jail time. Yet, no whites were held accountable for the lynching of Benjamin Thomas. The police arrested many in the Black community that night and the mayor sentenced them to heavy fines or jail time. Yet, no whites were held accountable for the lynching of Benjamin Thomas. After the brutality inflicted on Thomas, his body was taken to Demaine funeral home on King Street. His mother, Elizabeth Thomas, “could not bear to look upon her boy.” At the memorial service at Shiloh Baptist Church, a crowd of 600 people heard Rev. Henry H. Warring proclaim Thomas an honest boy, innocent of the crime that led to his lynching. After Thomas was interred at Penny Hill Cemetery, the Black community mobilized to assist the Thomas family to raise funds to move his body from a pauper’s grave into Douglass Cemetery, but the relocation was not recorded. There is still a question as to the final resting place of Benjamin Thomas.” For a detailed account of the lynching of Benjamin Thomas and its aftermath, you can read this report by the Alexandria Community Remembrance Project Research Committee.
News Coverage: Alexandria Gazette, Evening Star, Richmond Planet
Article Link (from Alexandria Gazette published on 1899-08-08)
Article Link (from Alexandria Gazette published on 1899-08-17)
Article Link (from Evening Star published on 1899-08-09)
Article Link (from Evening Star published on 1899-08-10)
Article Link (from Richmond Planet published on 1899-08-12)
Article Link (from Richmond Planet published on 1899-08-12)
Alexandria still has a long way to go with its race relations with African Americans. Especially some of the stores on King Street.
It seems as if they don’t want African Americans in them. I also noticed that most African American employees of various establishments seem to not be allowed to handle the cash flow or cash registers. Why is that?
Reports on the City of Alexandria’s website now say that he was actually only 16 years old.
As a member of the Hampton Roads, Norfolk, Virginia community, I hope to understand the misery within the separation and hatred of other parts of Virginia, which is supposed to be “FOR LOVERS.” May God be with this young child in Heaven. May the devil have a good ol’ time (the white man’s words, not ours) with every finger that was raised against him as he died. We have a long way to go, but as a doctoral student, I stand with MY PEOPLE and guarantee that we will succeed. Every day that we choose to education, wisdom, determination, purpose, and faith, we become better. Let us not judge one another but lift one another and have affirmation in our own lives as well as others.