Unknown Negro Murdered by Unknown Mob For Assaulting Unknown Girl

On May 4, 1900, three miles from Geneva, Alabama unknown hands took an unknown man from the sheriff’s deputies road and to the woods and hung him.

A common story in Alabama where over 300 lynchings took place in the Jim Crow era. Except there was no real reason for this murder victim to be unknown as he had appeared before a county magistrate to face charges that he had assaulted a 13-year-old girl. Also while it is possible the papers didn’t report the girl’s identity because she was a minor, that wasn’t the usual standard of the day.

The unknown negro supposedly pled guilty to the assault to the county magistrate but there was no record of a formal sentencing which was standard for one who accepted his guilt. 

The conclusion is that a reported 20-year-old male Negro, described as having “ginger skin” and no shoes was brutally murdered by a group of riders who took him from armed law enforcement, he was unknown, his murderers unknown, and his reported victim unknown. 

Sources:

 

Christmas Assault Leads To New Year Lynching

Jan.3, 1901 Louis McAdams was witnessed having an argument with White storekeeper J.M. Ray and pulled a knife on the man and slit his neck in front of the store in Wilsonville, Alabama. This act incensed the White people of Shelby County. Ray was badly injured but survived, McAdams whatever the reason for his assault did not.

McAdams was arrested in the town of Childersburg on Jan. 2nd for the attempted murder and when the sheriff’s deputies were transporting him back to Wilsonville was intercepted by a mob of 100 White men all brandishing weapons. The threat was too much for the two deputies who immediately surrendered their suspect. About four miles from Wilsonville the mob hung McAdams in a tree and unloaded 50 guns into the body.

The deputies went on to Wilsonville and the sheriff and coroner were notified of the lynching. It was reported that the mob all wore masks and so no one could be identified. There was no further report on J.M. Ray in the Alabama newspapers either, he apparently survived or after the hanging, no one cared. The papers of Alabama held the mob as quiet and dignified adding that they dispersed quickly after justice was served.

 Sources: 

https://www.newspapers.com/image/882782733/?terms=%22J.M%20Ray%22&match=1

https://www.newspapers.com/image/55228334/?clipping_id=115760383