March 3, 1900: Jim Cross/Jim Crosby

Today's featured lynching is another example of an entire family being targeted by lynchers. We find this lynching in the pages of The Wilmington Morning Star (Wilmington, N. C.) dated March 4, 1900:

RACE TROUBLE IN ALABAMA.

Negro Lynched for Shooting for a White Man—Several Negroes Shot.

By Telegraph to the Morning Star.

MONTGOMERY, Ala., March 4.—Race trouble is threatened at Letohatchie, twenty five miles south of this city. It is reported that one thousand negroes are congregated and are threatening. It is said that last night some white men went to the house of Jim Cross, a negro, called him tot he door and shot him. Afterwards the crowd shot his wife, son and daughter. Only a few days ago Sam Powell, white, was shot by a negro in the same neighborhood. The sheriff of Montgomery county has been telegraphed to for aid.

Now another article with most of the same details, but a different name. This article comes from the Fayetteville Observer (Fayetteville, N. C.) dated March 5, 1900:

Race Trouble in Alabama.

By telegraph to the Observer.

Letchatchie, Ala., March 5.—Thousands of negroes are up in arms over the assassination of one of their leaders, Jim Cosby. He was called to his door at midnight Saturday and riddled with buckshot. The assassins rushed over his body and dragged his wife and little daughter from bed and shot them several times, leaving them for dead. Negroes for fifty miles around have crowded to this place. They declare they know the perpetrators and will have revenge. The whites are well armed and if the negroes fire the first shot, there will be horrible slaughter. The negro who shot merchant Powell several days ago, was lynched. The negroes declared they would have revenge and Cosby was their most fearless spokesman.

Thank you for joining me and as always, I hope I leave you with something to ponder.