Lynching in America

Lynching escalated in the post-war years, terrorizing
black Americans with threats of violence
and death and fueling a massive exodus of black
refugees out of the South to cities in the North and
West. A tool of racial control used to enforce white
dominance, lynching surged while black veterans
returned to their communities as potential leaders
and defenders. Many of these veterans were targeted
precisely because their status threatened to
upend the myth of racial inferiority on which the
ideology of white supremacy relied.
Lynching escalated in
the post-war years,
terrorizing black
Americans and fueling a
massive exodus of black
refugees out of the
South to cities in the
North and West.
During this period, black veterans became widely associated in the minds of many
white people with an attitude of defiant resistance that could prove deadly in a society
where racial subordination was violently enforced. This perception put black veterans in
jeopardy even years after the war, and many black veterans were killed as a result of being
continously targeted for racial violence. On January 10, 1922, a white mob chased down
and shot to death William “Willie” Jenkins, a young black World War I veteran who was
accused of insulting a white woman near Eufala, Alabama. The mob reportedly captured
Mr. Jenkins just across the Georgia state line and brought him back to Eufala, where he escaped
only to be recaptured. His body was later found on the side of the road, about four
miles from town, riddled with bullets. 99
In 1937, a veteran named Earnest McGowan refused to accept his victimization at the
hands of a white mob and reported to the authorities in Waller County, Texas, that he had
been attacked and wrongly accused of stealing cattle. In response, the mob found Mr. Mc-
Gowan and killed him. 100 On April 29, 1939, World War I veteran Lee Snell was driving a
taxi in Daytona Beach, Florida, when he accidentally struck and killed a white 12-year-old
who was riding a bicycle. Mr. Snell was arrested and charged with manslaughter. During a
transfer between jails, two brothers of the deceased child stopped the police car and fatally
shot Mr. Snell. Officers did not use force to apprehend the men, and as the brothers drove
away, they called out to the constable, “I’ll see you after the funeral.” The brothers were
charged with murder, but the constable declined to identify them at trial and a jury acquitted
them of all wrongdoing. 101
Precious E. Grant, a black World War I veteran, was arrested in March 1943 based on
the statement of a white woman who said he had attempted to rape her. The woman admitted
she had never seen her assailant; she claimed he had grabbed her from behind and
fled when she screamed. Mr. Grant was arrested and jailed on March 21 and held for several
months awaiting a trial that would never come. On November 28, two white men
seized Mr. Grant from his cell, killed him, and left his corpse in the woods for the birds. 102
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