Victim ID: VA1890120201
Victim Name: Thaddeus Fowlkes
Race: Black
Sex: Male
Age: Unknown
Job: Unknown
Method of Death: Hanged
Accusation: Murder of a white man, a railroad brakeman
Date: 1890-12-02
County Name: Charlotte
Mob Composition: Masked
Summary: A party of white men lynched Thaddeus Fowlkes, a black man, at 6 PM on December 2, 1890, near Drakes Branch in Charlotte County. Thaddeus Fowlkes, sometimes referred to as Thaddeus Holmes or Folks, was accused of killing a white man.
Thaddeus Fowlkes was accused of killing Captain Yancey, a white man of Keysville, in Charlotte County sometimes in October or November 1890. On November 1st, 1890, Fowlkes was moved to the Danville jail to prevent a lynching, according to the Norfolk Virginian. On December 2nd, Fowlkes was brought back to Charlotte Courthouse to determine his trial date (Norfolk Landmark). Fowlkes elected to be tried in the County Court in March; according to the Norfolk Landmark, “This staying of the hands of justice did not please the people and when the sheriff who had the prisoner in charge got nearly to Drake’s Branch where the train was to be taken, a large crowd rose as from the ground and overpowering the officer soon had a rope around the negro’s neck and his body dangling from the limb of a pine tree. The Commonwealth’s Attorney cut the rope but not until the man was dead.” The Richmond Planet denounced that “Not a shot is fired by the armed deputies who had been detailed to guard this prisoner back to Danville. Not a protest is chronicled, but they by passive submission become accessories to the crime and are virtually as guilty as the scoundrels who pulled the rope.”
News Coverage: Norfolk Landmark, Norfolk Virginian, Richmond Dispatch, Richmond Planet
Article Link (from Richmond Dispatch published on 1890-12-03)
Article Link (from Richmond Planet published on 1890-12-06)
Article Link (from Richmond Planet published on 1890-12-13)
Article Link (from Richmond Planet published on 1890-12-13)