Victim ID: VA1900042001
Victim Name: John Peters
Race: Black
Sex: Male
Age: Unknown
Job: Unknown
Method of Death: Riddled with bullets
Accusation: Assaulted a 16 year-old white girl
Date: 1900-04-20
City: Tazewell
Mob Composition: Masked
Summary: John Peters, an African American man, was lynched on April 20th, 1900, by a masked mob in Tazewell. Peters was accused of assaulting a young white girl.
John Peters allegedly assaulted Kate Richie, a 16-year-old white girl, on April 18th, 1900, near Tazewell (Virginian-Pilot). With the aid of bloodhounds, Peters was captured and put in jail in Tazewell. At around midnight on April 20th, “masked men broke open the door with axes, a rope was placed around Peters’ neck and he was dragged two hundred yards down the railroad track toward the woods. Hundreds of shots were fired into his body while he was being dragged, and before the woods were reached he was dead. The rope was then thrown over a tree and he was drawn up” (Virginian-Pilot). The Shenandoah Herald, however, claimed that the report about the Peters’ lynching was “entirely without foundation”.
News Coverage: Free Lance-Star, Shenandoah Herald, Virginian-Pilot
Article Link (from Shenandoah Herald published on 1900-04-27)
Article Link (from Virginian-Pilot published on 1900-04-21)