Victim ID: VA1925032001
Victim Name: James Jordan
Race: Black
Sex: Male
Age: 22
Job: Lumber mill
Method of Death: Hanged and riddled with bullets, body burned
Accusation: Attack on a white woman
Date: 1925-03-20
City: Waverly
Mob Composition: About 500 to 2,000, armed, undisguised
Summary: James Jordan, a 22 year old black man, was lynched on March 20th, 1925 in Waverly, Sussex County. Jordan was accused of attacking a young white woman.
In the afternoon of March 18th, 1925, a married white woman in Sussex County saw a black man in her backyard, who allegedly tried to enter her house and attack her (Richmond Times-Dispatch). Two days later, James Jordan was identified as the assailant by the woman and put in jail in Waverly. After 8 PM on March 20th, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported that a frenzied mob of 500 people broke into the jail with a ten-foot water main and took James Jordan “to a vacant lot in front of the depot and hanged him to a tree, riddling the body with bullets and later burning it.” The Times-Dispatch also noted that “The lynching took place about 100 yards from the jail, within a few feet from the Norfolk and Western depot. A train had just pulled into the station and a part of the lynching episode was visible from windows of the train.” The following day, the coroner’s jury could not start its investigation of the lynching because the charred body of James Jordan had been stolen and brought to Windsor, 26 miles away from Waverly (Richmond Times-Dispatch). The Commonwealth’s Attorney, Howerston, indicated that he would travel to Windsor, where James Jordan’s body was taken, to investigate his death (Harrisonburg Daily News). In the afternoon, the coroner’s jury went to Windsor where they identified “a charred and mutilated body found on the streets there this morning as that of Jordan” (Washington Post). On the same day, Governor Trinkle traveled to Waverley to meet a gathering of representative citizens, deploring the lynching and pleading for calm (Washington Post). Even though the lynchers were not disguised and authorities plead with the mob to avoid a lynching, no-one could be identified and no arrests were made.
The Richmond Planet denounced the lynching in its front page, while the Norfolk Journal and Guide expressed pity for “poor Virginia whose law and reputation were outraged by the savagery of Waverly’s white citizens.” The Richmond Times-Dispatch and the Virginian-Pilot also published scathing editorials condemning the lynching. However, the Waverly Dispatch, a local newspaper, justified the lynching: “As a result of the lynching, there has been an enormous amount of unfavorable publicity for Sussex County and the town of Waverly in particular, although it is likely that the same thing would have taken place in any other town or county in Virginia under similar provocation and circumstances. Now that the lynching has taken place and cannot be recalled, it should, and perhaps will, serve as an object lesson to the colored men of the ‘black belt’.”
For a detailed account of this lynching and its legacy in Waverly, you can read this 2014 Richmond Times-Dispatch article by Frank Green (part 1, 2 and 3).
News Coverage: Daily Review, Harrisonburg Daily News, Norfolk Journal and Guide, Richmond Planet, Richmond Times-Dispatch, Roanoke Times, Roanoke World-News, Washington Post, Waverly Dispatch
Article Link (from Harrisonburg Daily News published on 1925-03-23)
Article Link (from Richmond Planet published on 1925-03-28)
Article Link (from Richmond Planet published on 1925-03-28)
Article Link (from Richmond Planet published on 1925-04-04)
Article Link (from Washington Post published on 1925-03-22)