Victim ID: VA1920111401
Victim Name: Dave Hurst
Race: Black
Sex: Male
Age: 25
Job: Coal miner
Method of Death: Hanged and shot
Accusation: Attempted assault on a 60 year-old white woman
Date: 1920-11-14
City: Kent Junction
Mob Composition: 75-300 men
Summary: Dave Hurst, a 25 year-old black coal miner, was lynched on November 14th, 1920, near Kent Junction in Wise County for the alleged assault on an elderly white woman.
On Friday, November 12th, 1920, Dave Hurst, often reported as Dave/David Hunt, allegedly attacked a 60-year-old white woman at her home in Wise County (Alexandria Gazette). She lived near a train station and when a passenger train passed through, she flagged down the crew and reported what had happened to her and that the man that attacked her was walking nearby. When the train crew saw Hurst walking along the railroad tracks, they started the train after him. When Dave Hurst realized he was being followed, he took off into the woods and some crew members left the train and ran in pursuit. Hurst was quickly captured and put in jail (Alexandria Gazette). Dave Hurst was in jail in Wise on November 14th, when a mob of about 75 to 300 men ordered the guards to open the doors; after their refusal, the mob used a sledge hammer to break down the jail doors and then took Hurst out of the jail. The mob put Dave Hurst into an automobile and drove him to a bridge near Kent Junction in Wise County, in the area where the alleged assault had taken place. Once there, the mob hanged Dave Hurst to the bridge and then shot him multiple times. Afterwards, Hurst was tied “to an automobile and dragged to a point near Blackwood where it was found Sunday morning lying by the roadside. All of tho negro’s clothes were torn oft and his body was terribly cut up by bullets” (Big Stone Gap Post). The mob dispersed after the lynching and no arrests were immediately made (Alexandria Gazette).
A year later, one of the lynchers, a white man named Shayler B. Tate, was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to two years in prison (Big Stone Gap Post); he was the first white man to be convicted for a lynching of a black man in Virginia (Norfolk Journal and Guide). A second man, A. L. Napier was later on also convicted to one year in the penitentiary (Norfolk Journal and Guide). The Governor of Virginia, E. Lee Trinkle, at first refused to pardon Tate and Napier (Norfolk Journal and Guide), but after they had served about half of their sentences, on October 6th, 1923 Trinkle pardoned both of them.
In September 2022, the Wise County/City of Norton Remembrance Coalition and EJI unveiled an historical marker memorializing the lynching of Dave Hurst. The marker reads: “On November 14, 1920, a large white mob lynched a 25-year-old Black coal miner named Dave Hurst. Authorities had arrested Mr. Hurst two days earlier after a white woman reported that she had been assaulted by a Black man. During this era, the deep racial hostility that permeated Southern society burdened Black people with a presumption of guilt that often served to focus suspicion on Black communities after a crime was reported or discovered, whether evidence supported that suspicion or not. In the early morning hours of November 14, a white mob broke into the Wise County Jail, kidnapped Mr. Hurst, and drove him to a bridge about two miles near here, where they hanged him with a log chain. Afterwards, the mob shot his body repeatedly and then dragged Mr. Hurst’s remains by car to Blackwood. His clothes were torn off and his body was bruised and disfigured by the bullets. Although two white men were tried and convicted for participating in the mob, the governor of Virginia pardoned the men in 1923. None of the other dozens to hundreds of mob participants faced any legal repercussions for their roles in the lynching of Dave Hurst. More than 84 racial terror lynchings have been documented in Virginia, including at least three victims in Wise County.” Two months later, the marker was reported stolen.
For additional information about this lynching, you can read this essay by Dr. Tom Costa and his research team at UVa-Wise.
Archival Sources: Death Certificate, Governor Pardon of Napier and Tate
News Coverage: Alexandria Gazette, Big Stone Gap Post, Clinch Valley News, Norfolk Journal and Guide, Richmond Planet, Richmond Times-Dispatch, Virginian-Pilot
Article Link (from Alexandria Gazette published on 1920-11-16)
Article Link (from Richmond Times-Dispatch published on 1920-11-15)