January 18, 1909: Hilliard

Today we learn about a lynching for the crime of speaking insultingly in Arkansas. The article is found in The Wilmington Morning Star (Wilmington, N. C.) dated January 19, 1909:

NEGRO LYNCHED IN ARKANSAS.

He Had Spoken Insultingly to a Young Lady.

(By Wire to the Morning Star.)

Hope, Ark. Jan. 18.—After forcing the engineer of the light plant to cut off the current leaving the town in darkness, a party of young men early today took an 18-year-old negro named Hilliard from the county jail and hanged him to a telegraph pole. The negro had spoken insultingly to a woman clerk in Haynes Brothers' store Friday. Only the jailer was on duty, the sheriff being out of town when the lynchers attacked the jail and over-powered the jailer.

Most of the articles gave the same information, but a few stated that the lynchers fired bullets into the body and the hanging. Thank you for joining me and as always, I hope I leave you with something to ponder.