Victim ID: VA1902040501
Victim Name: James Carter
Race: Black
Sex: Male
Age: 20
Job: Unknown
Method of Death: Hanged and riddled with bullets
Accusation: Wounded a white man
Date: 1902-04-05
City: Amherst
Mob Composition: About 200 masked men
Summary: About 200 people hanged and shot James Carter, a 20-year-old black man, in Amherst on April 5th, 1902. Carter had shot and wounded a white man.
On the night of April 3rd, 1902, James Carter shot and seriously wounded Don Thomas, a young white farmer, near New Glasgow, about seven miles from Amherst. Thomas had accused Carter of setting on fire one of outhouses of Mr. Payne, a neighbor of Don Thomas (Richmond Dispatch). Soon after the shooting, a sheriff captured Carter while he was trying to escape by boarding a train in Amherst. The following day, Carter was sent to the Amherst Jail to await trial before a grand jury (Lexington Gazette). According to the Lexington Gazette, soon after 11 PM on April 5th, 1902, “a company of about 200 men rode from the neighborhood where the shooting occurred to Amherst. All were masked or wore disguise. Jailer Jones had locked up for the night and had left the jail and was on his way to his home, and when a short distance from the jail he was stopped by tho leaders of the party, who, at the point of pistols, compelled him to return to the prison and unlock it.” Carter was taken from the jail and brought about a mile and half from Amherst, on the road toward New Glasgow. There, the mob hanged Carter to a locust tree and then riddled his body with bullets. The coroner’s jury found that “Carter came to his death by hanging and gunshot wounds inflicted by parties unknown to the jury” (Richmond Planet).
The Richmond Planet denounced the lynching and harshly criticized the jailer, John Jones, who “not only gave up the keys, but waited until they were returned to him. In this, he not only violated his oath of office but proclaimed himself grossly incompetent and a party to the murder.”
News Coverage: Alexandria Gazette, Lexington Gazette, Portsmouth Star, Richmond Dispatch, Richmond Planet, Roanoke Times
Article Link (from Alexandria Gazette published on 1902-04-07)
Article Link (from Lexington Gazette published on 1902-04-11)
Article Link (from Richmond Dispatch published on 1902-04-08)
Article Link (from Richmond Planet published on 1902-04-12)
Article Link (from Richmond Planet published on 1902-04-19)