Victim ID: VA1892040601
Victim Name: Isaac Brandon
Race: Black
Sex: Male
Age: 43
Job: Unknown
Method of Death: Hanged
Accusation: Attempted assault on a young white woman
Date: 1892-04-06
City: Charles City
Mob Composition: About 75 masked men

Summary: Isaac Brandon, an African American man living in Charles City County, was lynched on April 6^th, 1892. He was accused of attempting to assault a white woman.

On Saturday, March 26^th, 1892, Isaac Brandon allegedly “broke into a house in Charles City county, occupied by three ladies, and, with threats to kill them, assaulted one of them” (The Roanoke Times). The sheriff executed a warrant for rape for Brandon on March 28^th; the court records contain an affidavit in which a white man testified that Brandon sexually assaulted a young white woman, Rebecca Ammons (Commonwealth Cause). On Wednesday night, April 6^th, 1892, a group of about 75 masked men took Brandon from the Charles City Jail, and brought him to the courthouse yard, where he was hung from a tree. Brandon protested his innocence until the end. Court records also indicate that on April 7^th a jury found that Isaac Brandon “came to his death at the hands of an unknown party by hanged to a tree, after being taken from the county jail.” The Richmond Planet criticized the local sheriff and Commonwealth Attorney, as well as the Governor of Virginia for not investigating the lynchers and punish them.

In 2018, an historical marker was erected in Charles City to memorialize the lynching of Isaac Brandon, the first of its kind in Virginia. The marker reads: “A mob of about 75 masked men dragged Brandon from a cell in the old Charles City County jail and hanged him from a tree on this hillside on the night of 6 April 1892. Brandon, a 43-year-old black man, had been held in jail on a charge of assaulting a white woman. He was married and the father of eight children. No charges were filed in connection with Brandon’s murder. More than 4,000 lynchings took place in the United States between 1877 and 1950. In Virginia, approximately 100 people, the vast majority of them black men, were killed in documented lynchings. Lynch mobs terrorized African Americans and helped to maintain white supremacy.”

Archival Sources: Commonwealth Cause

News Coverage: Alexandria Gazette, Norfolk Landmark, Richmond Planet, Roanoke Times

Article Link (from Alexandria Gazette published on 1892-04-09)
Article Link (from Roanoke Times published on 1892-04-02)
Article Link (from Roanoke Times published on 1892-04-09)