November 10, 1926: Scott Evans, Robert Brown and wife

Today we learn about a multiple lynching in Texas through the pages of The New York Age (New York, N. Y.) dated November 20, 1926:

Texas Mob Burns Husband & Wife To Death In Their Home

Negro Woman and Two Men Lynched Near Houston, Texas, the Woman and One Man Being Burned in Their Cabin

Crime Followed Killing of White Rancher, But Victims Had No Connection with Slaying, Which Was In Self Defense, According To Plea of Colored Man Already Arrested

Houston, Tex.—The Lone Star State has joined hands with the Palmetto State in maintaining the lynching record, the Texas victims being a Negro woman and two men, one man being shot as he opened a door in answering a call, the other man and the woman being burned in their cabin when they refused to come out and be shot to death.

Seven white men, dressed as cowboys, perpetrated the outrage, and a posse of sheriffs is combing the brush country near the county line, twenty five miles from here, where the killings were done.

Wallace Crowder, a white rancher was killed a week earlier by a colored man, who was arrested, who made a plea of self defense. The victims of the lynchings were not connected with the killing of Crowder.

Robert Brown and his wife, with Scott Evans, 50, a ranch foreman, and Frazier Holmes, 90, a cook, occupied a cabin on the Bessett Blakeley ranch, near the county line of Harris and Reid counties. They were sitting in front of the open fireplace on the evening of November 10, when men surrounded the house and called to them to come out. A railroad section gang saw the attack from Jaston, a railroad station nearby, but dared not interfere. The attackers were not masked.

Let Old Man Escape

Evans went to the door to answer the call and he was shot by the raiders. Badly wounded, he attempted to escape but one of the gang smashed his head with some heavy weapon. Then when Frazier Holmes came to the door to see what the trouble was his old age saved him from their wrath, and he was permitted to leave. And as Brown and wife would not come out, the crowd set fire to the house from end to end, riddled the house with bullets, and then fled the scene.

Shortly after the sheriffs started the investigation, H. B. Crowder, jr., brother to the slain rancher surrendered to the authorities, asking protection, saying he feared lynching, but would not say anything about the lynching of the three Negroes. He has been charged with murder.

Frazier Holmes told the officers that the raiders came up in an automobile and were unmasked.

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