Victim ID: VA1927113001
Victim Name: Leonard Woods
Race: Black
Sex: Male
Age: 35
Job: Coal miner
Method of Death: Hanged, shot, and burned
Accusation: Murder of white mine foreman in Wise
Date: 1927-11-30
County Name: Wise
Mob Composition: About 400
Summary: Leonard Woods, an African American man, was lynched in Wise, Virginia on November 30th, 1927, for the murder of Harshall Deaton, a white mine foreman.
On the night of November 27th, 1927, Harshall Deaton, a white mine foreman from Virginia, was killed in Jenkins, Kentucky (Danville Bee). Leonard Woods, Susan Armister, and Anna Mae Emery, all black, were accused of being involved in the murder of Harshall Deaton, as it was suggested that the trio thought that Deaton was driving a taxi cab, and when asked for a ride, Deaton refused. This angered the trio. It was reported that one of the women pulled a gun on him and Woods took the gun and shot Deaton to death (Danville Bee). After Woods’ arrest, he was moved from Jenkins to Whitesburg, Kentucky, as there were serious threats of mob violence. However, this did not stop the mob. Soon after midnight, on November 30th, a mob of about 400 people from Virginia took Woods from the Whitesburg jail and brought him to the Virginia-Kentucky state line and lynched him there (Harrisonburg Daily News Record). Leonard Woods was shot to death and his body was placed on a platform that was to be used for the dedication ceremony of the new highway opening from Kentucky to Virginia. Gasoline was poured over his body and torched to signal his death. Black and white newspapers condemned the lynching, urged authorities to punish the lynchers and pass anti-lynching legislation (Norfolk Journal and Guide). None of the lynchers were charged or prosecuted.
In 2021, an historical marker was erected in Pound, Virginia, to memorialize the lynching of Leonard Woods. The marker reads: “Leonard Woods, a black coal miner from Jenkins, KY, was lynched near here on the night of 29-30 Nov. 1927. Officers had arrested Woods for allegedly killing Herschel Deaton, a white man from Coeburn, VA, and had taken him to the Whitesburg, KY jail. On the day of Deaton’s funeral, a white mob numbering in the hundreds broke into the jail and brought Woods close to this spot, where they hanged, shot, and burned him. No one was ever arrested. In the aftermath, at the urging of Norfolk editor Louis Jaffé, Norton’s Bruce Crawford, and other journalists, VA Gov. Harry F. Byrd worked with the General Assembly early in 1928 to pass the nation’s first law defining lynching as a state crime.” For additional information about this lynching, you can read this essay by Dr. Tom Costa and his research team at UVa-Wise.
News Coverage: Crawford’s Weekly, Danville Bee, Harrisonburg Daily News Record, Norfolk Journal and Guide, Richmond Planet
Article Link (from Danville Bee published on 1927-11-30)
Article Link (from Danville Bee published on 1927-12-01)
Article Link (from Danville Bee published on 1927-12-02)
Article Link (from Harrisonburg Daily News published on 1927-12-01)
Article Link (from Harrisonburg Daily News published on 1927-12-03)
Article Link (from Richmond Planet published on 1927-12-10)
Article Link (from Richmond Planet published on 1927-12-10)
Does anyone know where he’s buried? Has anyone investigated whether he was was innocent or not?
According to scholar Alexander Leidholdt, “When later in the day authorities buried Woods near the site of his execution, visitors gathered around his shallow grave and poked sticks in the ground to determine how far beneath the surface his coffin lay. Several hours afterward, black men from Kentucky exhumed the body and interred it in an undisclosed location.” (https://www.jstor.org/stable/41320297). You can read more about this case here: https://sites.lib.jmu.edu/valynchings/three-lynchings-in-wise-county/.