jim crow era

Bill McAllister: The Black Man Lynched on Boxing Day for Dating a White Woman in 1921

On December 26, 1921, while much of white America was still in the afterglow of Christmas, Bill McAllister lay dead in Florence County, South Carolina, his body riddled with bullets. His crime was not proven murder, not theft, not...

Rev. Jesse Routte: The Black Minister Who Outsmarted Jim Crow With a Turban

During the Jim Crow era, segregation depended on strict racial categories: a person was either Black or white, inferior or superior, barred or welcomed. Rev. Jesse Routte exposed the idiocy of that system in a remarkable way, not through...

Cordella Stevenson: The Woman Brutally Lynched by a White Mob for Her Son’s Alleged Crime

Cordella Stevenson was a Black woman living in rural Mississippi. In 1915, after her son was suspected of a crime he didn’t commit, a white mob kidnapped and lynched her, leaving her body hanging in public. No one was...

George Richardson: The Black Man Whose False Rape Accusation by a White Woman Triggered the Deadly Springfield Riot of 1908

In August 1908, the city of Springfield, Illinois—often celebrated as the hometown of Abraham Lincoln—became the site of one of the most violent race riots in American history. Over the course of just a few days, white mobs rampaged...

The Lynching of Richard Dickerson and the Destruction of Black-Owned Businesses in Ohio, 1904

Richard Dickerson was an African American laborer living in Springfield, Ohio, whose lynching by a white mob on March 7, 1904 became the catalyst for further racial violence, including the targeted destruction of Black-owned businesses in the city’s “Levee”...

Barbara Pope: The Woman Whose Train Protest Against Segregation Led to Her Tragic End

Barbara E. Pope was an American teacher, author, and civil rights activist whose battle against systemic racism and personal struggles ultimately led to her tragic end. Barbara Pope was born in January 1854 in Georgetown, Washington, D.C., to Alfred and...

Mary Turner, the Pregnant Black Woman Lynched in 1918 for Condemning Her Husband’s Killers

Mary Turner was an eight-month pregnant African American woman who, in 1918, faced a brutal lynching at the hands of a white mob in Lowndes County, Georgia. Her "crime" was daring to speak out against the lynching of her...
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Andrew Watson: The World’s First Black International Footballer and Captain

Andrew Watson was a Scottish footballer who made history as the world’s first Black international football player and captain....