In the summer of 1908, Springfield, Illinois, Abraham Lincoln’s hometown, erupted in a violent two-day race riot fueled by racial hatred. Angry white mobs attacked Black residents, burned their businesses, and lynched those who dared to stand their ground. One of the victims of this senseless violence was Scott Burton, a 58-year-old Black barber who was brutally lynched for daring to defend his property and family from the mob’s aggression.
Springfield in 1908 was a divided city. Differences in wealth, segregation, and growing racial tension created a fragile peace that finally shattered on August 14, 1908 during the Springfield riot. The violence was triggered by an accusation of assault against a white woman named Mabel Hallam, who falsely claimed that George Richardson, a Black man, had sexually assaulted her.
The accusation spread quickly, igniting outrage among white residents. Despite the lack of evidence, mobs began to form, targeting Black neighborhoods and businesses. Homes were burned, shops were looted, and Black residents were brutally attacked.
Local law enforcement, overwhelmed and unprepared, could not contain the mobs as they set fire to Black neighbourhoods, looted businesses, and assaulted any Black resident they saw. White-owned stores and homes were untouched as the mob focused its wrath solely on Black properties.
As the violence escalated, Scott Burton, a 58-year-old Black barber who owned a shop at 12th and Madison, became one of the mob’s targets
Around 2:30 a.m., a white mob approached Burton’s home, yelling racist threats and offering bounties of “twenty-five dollars for a nigger!” Burton, aware of the chaos unfolding throughout Springfield, stood guard with his shotgun, determined to protect his family and business. When the mob drew closer and began throwing objects, Burton fired a warning shot into the air, hoping to scare them off.
Instead, the shot enraged the crowd. They stormed into his home, smashing windows and kicking down doors. According to his daughter:
“Father was sitting in the house with us when the mob came around the corner. Some of them came into the house…Several of them struck him with bottles, and one man had an axe, which he hit him with…The men then took him out of the house, and that is the last we saw.”
The mob beat Burton until his head became, as one witness described, “a bloody lacerated mass of flesh.” He was then dragged unconscious, to a tree near his barbershop, with a rope tied around his neck. Spectators, including men, women, and even children, spat on him as he was dragged through the streets.
The crowd, eager for a lynching but unprepared, scavenged a nearby clothesline to serve as a noose. They stripped Burton of his clothes, flung the line over a tree branch, and hanged him.
As his body hung from the tree, members of the mob shot at him, slashed him with knives, and even tried to set him on fire.
Children played with his body, swinging it back and forth, while adults in the crowd laughed and cheered, shouting: “We’ve got one! Look at that nigger swing!”
After killing Burton, the mob turned its attention to his barbershop. They set it on fire, making sure the flames did not spread to the nearby white-owned buildings. Their goal was clear, not just to kill Burton but to wipe out his success and presence in the community.
Shockingly, when questioned about the violence, the Governor of the state, Charles Deneen placed the blame on Burton, arguing that his warning shot was what “provoked” the mob. This statement ignored the mob’s violence and shifted blame to Burton for simply trying to protect his family and business.
Days later, it was revealed that Mabel Hallam, whose accusation partly triggered the mob’s rage, lied about the assault. Her false claim cost lives, destroyed businesses, and left Black families homeless. But the truth came too late for Scott Burton and many others whose lives were destroyed during the riot.
The Springfield Race Riot of 1908 did not fade quietly into history. The violence and Burton’s lynching, among others, drew national outrage. Civil rights activists, both Black and white, convened in the following year to form the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909. Their mission was to combat lynching and systemic violence against Black communities, setting the stage for future civil rights movements.
Sources:
https://nmaahc.si.edu/object/nmaahc_2015.139
https://scholarworks.umb.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1025&context=trotter_review
