Victim ID: VA1893020103
Victim Name: John Johnson
Race: Black
Sex: Male
Age: Unknown
Job: Unknown
Method of Death: Hanged with a horse
Accusation: Murder of two white men
Date: 1893-02-01
City: Richlands
Mob Composition: About 300


Summary: John Johnson, an African American man from Buchanan county, was lynched on February 1st, 1893 in Richlands, Tazewell County, for the murder of two white men. As a result of the murder of these two men, five African American men were lynched in less than three days in Richlands, including John Johnson, Spencer Branch, Jerry Brown, Sam Ellerson, Sam Blow and possibly another unnamed victim.

On Monday, January 30th 1893, Alexander Ratcliff and Benjamin Shortridge, two white merchants, were in Richlands, Tazewell, for business. After spending some time in a barroom, they “were followed by four negroes, and on reaching a rather secluded spot, the negroes attacked them and knocked them in the head. After robbing their pockets of $31.00 in money, they dragged their bodies across the railroad track and left them for the first train to run over” (The Big Stone Gap Post). On Tuesday, January 31st, 1892, “Jerry Brown was suspected of the murder, […] and on being questioned closely finally confessed, implicating three others, Spencer Branch, John Johnson and Sam McDonald [Ellerson]. The authorities succeeded in capturing John Johnson and Spencer Branch and lodged them in jail, Sam McDonald [Ellerson] in the meantime having escaped” (The Roanoke Times). On that same evening, a mob of about 300 people “largely composed of neighbors of Ratcliff and Shortridge from Buchanan” (The Times) took Jerry Brown from the jail and hanged him to a tree. When the mob returned to the jail to lynch also Branch and Johnson, they found out that authorities had taken the prisoners away for safe-keeping (The Roanoke Times). The following morning, February 1st, 1893, a mob of about 300 people upon hearing that Branch and Johnson were detained in Cedar Bluff and that Sam Ellerson had been captured and bound to the same destination, they boarded the train to Cedar Bluff. Once there, they immediately took Ellerson in custody and started a search for Branch and Johnson (The Roanoke Times). Having heard that the two prisoners were held in a store, the mob “rushed across the bridge up to McGuire’s store, taking Spencer Branch and John Johnson away from the police. They then signaled the train to go ahead and proceeded to bring the three (John Johnson, Sam McDonald [Ellerson] and Spencer Branch) to Richlands, arriving there at about 10:30 a. m. They took them to the jail and after waiting some fifteen minutes, took them out and over the river to where they had hung Jerry Brown the night before” (The Roanoke Times). Before a crowd of about 500 people, including women and children, the mob first lynched Sam Ellerson by putting him on a horse and a noose around his neck and then letting the horse go from under him. After about half an hour Spencer Branch was lynched in the same way (The Roanoke Times). Finally, the mob turned to John Johnson, who, before being lynched in the same manner as Ellerson and Branch, “confessed that he participated in the Hunt murder and mentioned Sam Blow and Sam Burns (both colored), and two white men as accomplices (The Times). The Roanoke Times remarked that “The lynching took place between the hours of one and two p. m. and was very orderly, there being no shooting or fighting, and not one of tho crowd wore masks. After the three were dead the mob dispersed, and a crowd of about fourteen proceeded to capture Sam Blow, who Johnson implicated in the Hunt murder, and on Thursday morning his body was found hanging from a tree at Cedar Bluff.”

On February 17th, 1893, the Clinch Valley News reported that “The Commonwealth had summonsed from Richlands and neighborhood about sixty persons to appear before the grand jury to testify regarding the lynching of Jerry Brown, John Johnson, Spencer Branch, Sam Blow and Sam Kirkpatrick [Ellerson]. Three of these negroes were hung in the day time and none of the lynchers were in any way disguised. It has always been well nigh impossible to implicate individuals in such cases because of participation or an willingness of witnesses, but the matter will be sifted as far as possible to bring the guilty to trial.”


News Coverage: Alexandria Gazette, Big Stone Gap Post, Clinch Valley News, Richmond Dispatch, Richmond Planet, Roanoke Times, The Times

Article Link (from Alexandria Gazette published on 1893-02-02)
Article Link (from Alexandria Gazette published on 1893-02-04)
Article Link (from Big Stone Gap Post published on 1893-02-02)
Article Link (from Clinch Valley News published on 1893-02-03)
Article Link (from Clinch Valley News published on 1893-02-17)
Article Link (from Richmond Dispatch published on 1893-02-02)
Article Link (from Roanoke Times published on 1893-02-02)
Article Link (from Roanoke Times published on 1893-02-03)
Article Link (from Roanoke Times published on 1893-02-04)
Article Link (from The Times published on 1893-02-02)
Article Link (from The Times published on 1893-02-03)