Victim ID: VA1886050501
Victim Name: Dick Walker
Race: Black
Sex: Male
Age: Young
Job: Unknown
Method of Death: Hanged
Accusation: Attempted criminal assault on a young white woman, the daughter of a farmer
Date: 1886-05-05
City: Drake’s Branch
Mob Composition: About 50
Summary: A young African American man, Dick (Richard) Walker, was taken from jail on May 5th, 1886 by an outraged public and hanged from a tree near Drake’s Branch in Charlotte County. Walker was accused of assaulting a white girl.
Dick Walker was a young black man from Farmville (Staunton Spectator). On May 5th, 1886, Walker allegedly attempted to assault the daughter of a ‘respected’ citizen of Drake’s Branch. As the young girl started screaming, Walker ran away but was later captured in Chase City and returned to Drake’s Branch (Richmond Dispatch). Walker was identified as the assailant by the white girl and an old black man who had witnessed the assault. After being committed to jail, on that night, Walker was taken from jail by fifty citizens and hanged to a nearby tree (Richmond Dispatch). According to the Richmond Dispatch, “The public well lost the new rope [used to hang Walker], but the negro was justly dealt with.”
Historian Ann Field Alexander in her book Race Man: The Rise and Fall of the “Fighting Editor,” John Mitchell Jr, recounted how this lynching spurred John Mitchell Jr., the editor of the black newspaper the Richmond Planet, to write a furious editorial denouncing mob violence. According to Alexander, “The next week [Mitchell] received an anonymous letter from Southside Virginia that said, “If you poke that infernal head of yours in this county long enough for us to do it we will hang you higher than he was hung.” On the outside of the envelope was a crude drawing of a skull and crossbones. Instead of ignoring the threat, Mitchell printed the letter in the Planet […] He then traveled by train to Charlotte County wearing Smith & Wesson revolvers. He walked five miles from the train station to the scene of the lynching, toured the neighborhood, and visited the jail from which [Dick Walker] had been kidnapped. “The cowardly letter writer was nowhere in evidence,” he chortled. At a time when blacks were being lynched on much flimsier pretexts, his trip to Charlotte County at the age of twenty-two was a daring act that earned him accolades from his readers” p. 42.
News Coverage: Norfolk Virginian, Norfolk Weekly Landmark, Richmond Dispatch, Staunton Spectator
Article Link (from Richmond Dispatch published on 1886-05-07)
Article Link (from Staunton Spectator published on 1886-05-12)