June 5, 1902: James Black

Even though I could find several lynchings for June 5th, I had to search high and low to find an article about one of them.  After a couple of hours of searching, I finally found this one.  It helps that I have lived in this region of S.C. and therefore knew that Ravenel was misspelled in the list from 100 Years of Lynchings by Ralph Ginzburg.  Many of the lists of lynchings online come from this informative book and so they too are misspelled.  The Washington Times, June 6, 1902 reports:

SHOT TO DEATH AND THEN NAILED TO A POLE.

Lynchers Kill the Second Man Implicated in Murder of Woman at Ravenel, S.C.

COLUMBIA, S.C., June 5.--Jim Black was shot to death by a mob early this morning at Ravenel, and then hanged to a telegraph pole by spikes driven through his hands.  He confessed to the murder of Mrs. James K. Jones, a month ago, and implicated three other negroes.  One of these, Red Prior, was shot to death by the sheriff's posse while trying to escape.  

Mrs. Jones was nineteen years old, and was murdered for the purpose of robbery.  It was first proposed to chain Black in the doghouse, where he threw the body of the murdered woman, and burn it, but this was overruled.

I found two other articles about this lynching, but they all had the same details.  So, for once, today is a short posting.