More than a Victim: Known Narratives of Lynching Victims in the United States

“Having destroyed the citizenship of the man, they are now trying to destroy the manhood of the citizen. All their laws are shaped to this end, school laws, railroad car regulations, those governing labor liens on crops, every device is adopted to make slaves of free men and rob them of their wages. Whenever a malicious law is violated in any of its parts, any farmer, any railroad conductor, or merchant can call together a posse of his neighbors and punish even with death the black man who resists…” -Ida B. Wells (1862-1931), renowned civil rights and anti-lynching activist.

Published on: 14th June 2025

Last updated July 10, 2025.

Trigger Warning: This post speaks extensively about racially-motivated, extrajudicial murders perpetuated against the Black community in the United States. It also includes graphic images. Discretion is advised.

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This post catalogues the stories of all of the known victims of racial terror lynching in the United States. Specifically, it memorializes the victims of systemic lynching perpetuated against the Black community after the end of enslavement. It will be updated regularly with new victims on the anniversary of their deaths. We will update as frequently as possible, but please keep in mind our limited capacity.

The first victim we are honoring is John Simms, one of five known victims of racial terror lynchings in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. Little is known about him beyond his lynching.

If you want to learn more about the history of racism and racially-motivated violence in the U.S., please visit EJI.org.

If you want to learn about your own advocacy efforts in memorializing victims of lynching, please feel free to reach out to the Maryland Lynching Memorial Project for guidance (no matter where you are in the country, they have some of the leading national experts in honoring and educating on this history).

And feel free to suggest known victims that you want to see honored.

Listen to songs related to this post on our Youtube channel.

The History and Historical Themes of Racial Terror Lynchings

History

Following the end of enslavement, many practices and systems were put in place to keep the Black community subjugated to the white ruling class. This was especially prevalent in the South.

“The lawlessness which has been here described is like unto that which prevailed under slavery. The very same forces are at work now as then. The attempt is being made to subject to a condition of civil and industrial dependence, those whom the Constitution declares to be free men.” –Ida B. Wells

Racial terror lynchings served numerous purposes in maintaining systemic white supremacy. Lynchings were often treated as a spectacle, with many having an even carnival-like atmosphere as a warning to local African American communities. Lynchings served as a constant warning to African American communities throughout the country that they were never truly safe. At any moment, for any reason, the same fate could befall them simply because of their race.

“The Paris, Texas, burning of Henry Smith, February 1st, has exceeded all the others in its horrible details. The man was drawn through the streets on a float, as the Roman generals used to parade their trophies of war, while the scaffold ten feet high, was being built, and irons were heated in the fire. He was bound on it, and red-hot irons began at his feet and slowly branded his body, while the mob howled with delight at his shrieks…” –Ida B. Wells

Organizations like the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) focus on a specific time period in U.S. history. EJI specifically investigates lynchings reported between 1877-1950.

This horrific period of violence continues to have a lasting impact on Black communities today. And like many white supremacist practices, it also adapted to meet the current moment. Today, it manifests in increased police violence towards people of color. It can also be seen in disproportionate incarceration and death penality rates for the Black community, particularly Black men.

“You’re dramatically more likely to get the death penalty if the victim is white than if the victim is Black; and if the defendant is Black and the victim is white, then it’s a much greater chance of getting the death penalty.” –Bryan Stevenson, EJI Founder

Themes

-Lynchings are defined by their extrajudicial nature. It is impossible to know whether or not the victims committed the crimes they were accused of because that fact-finding opportunity (i.e. a fair trial judged by a jury of their peers) was deprived from the victim.

“Times without number, since invested with citizenship, the race has been indicted for ignorance, immorality and general worthlessness declared guilty and executed by its self-constituted judges. The operations of law do not dispose of negroes fast enough, and lynching bees have become the favorite pastime of the South.” –Ida B. Wells

-Many lynchings took place when Black men and boys were accused of sexual impropriety or assault by white women. In some cases, these relationships were consensual affairs that the white women were attempting to cover up.

“…A new cry, as false as it is foul, is raised in an effort to blast race character, a cry which has proclaimed to the world that virtue and innocence are violated by Afro-Americans who must be killed like wild beasts to protect womanhood and childhood.” –Ida B. Wells

-Many mainstream news outlets of the time paint a whitewashed picture of racial terror lynchings. They are routinely biased towards the white lynch mob and often use dehumanizing language to describe the Black victims.

-The further South you go, lynchings are more likely to be more drawn out and involve torture.

“The operations of law do not dispose of negroes fast enough, and lynching bees have become the favorite pastime of the South.” –Ida B. Wells

-Accountability for victims is exceedingly rare (if it even happened at all). Even in cases where we know the identities of mob members, almost no one has ever been held accountable for their role in a lynching.

-Local law enforcement and governments are often accomplices in lynchings, either by direct involvement or tacit compliance with the mob.

“So bold have the lynchers become, masks are laid aside, the temples of justice and strongholds of law are invaded in broad daylight and prisoners taken out and lynched, while governors of states and officers of law stand by and see the work well done.” –Ida B. Wells

A headline on the lynching of Henry Davis in Annapolis, Maryland. It demonstrates a lot of the common themes we see in racial terror lynchings, including an accusation of sexual impropriety and clear media bias.

*Portrait of anti-lynching activist Ida B. Wells by Cihak and Zima.*

“The events which have led up to the present wide-spread lawlessness in the South can be traced to the very first year Lee’s conquered veterans marched from Appomattox to their homes in the Southland. They were conquered in war, but not in spirit. They believed as firmly as ever that it was their right to rule black men and dictate to the National Government. The Knights of White Liners, and the Ku Klux Klans were composed of veterans of the Confederate army who were determined to destroy the effect of all the slave had gained by the war.”

More Than a Victim: Histories of Each Known Victim

See statistics nationwide through EJI’s Lynching Map.

Indiana

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Thomas Shipp & Abram S. Smith

August 7, 1930 • Marion, Grant County

Schoolteacher Abel Meeropol, who wrote the famous anti-lynching anthem “Strange Fruit”, cites seeing a photograph of Shipp & Smith’s lynching as the catalyst for writing it. He stated that the photo, “haunted him for days”.

According to the Equal Justice Initiative, Shipp & Smith’s narrative is as follows:

“On August 7, 1930, a white mob used crowbars and hammers to break into the Grant County jail in Marion, Indiana, to lynch three young Black men who had been arrested earlier that afternoon after being accused of murdering a white man and assaulting a white woman. Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith, both 19, were severely beaten and lynched, and 16-year-old James Cameron was badly beaten but survived.

That afternoon, word of the charges against these young Black men spread, and a growing mob of angry white residents gathered outside the Grant County jail. Around 9:30 pm, the mob attempted to rush the jail and was repelled by tear gas. An hour later, members of the mob successfully barreled past the sheriff and three deputies, grabbed Mr. Shipp and Mr. Smith from their cells as they prayed, and dragged them into the street. By then, the crowd totaled between 5,000 and 10,000 people. While spectators watched and cheered, the mob beat, tortured, and hanged both men from trees in the courthouse yard, brutally murdering them without the benefit of trial or legal proof of guilt…

The brutalized bodies of Mr. Shipp and Mr. Smith were hanged from trees in the courthouse yard and kept there for hours as a crowd of white men, women, and children grew by the thousands. Public spectacle lynchings, in which large crowds of white people, often numbering in the thousands, gathered to witness and participate in pre-planned heinous killings that featured prolonged torture, mutilation, dismemberment and/or burning of the victim, were common during this time. When the sheriff eventually cut the ropes off the corpses, the crowd rushed forward to take parts of the men’s bodies as ‘souvenirs’ before finally dispersing.”

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Learn more about Thomas Shipp & Abram S. Smith:

“Thousands Lynch Two Black Men in Marion, Indiana”

Maryland

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John Simms

June 14, 1875 • Annapolis, Anne Arundel County

Of the five known lynchings that took place in Anne Arundel county, John Simms’ murder is the one we know the least about. Simms was lynched in an area of Annapolis known as Perry’s Gate. Like many victims of lynching, Simms was accused of sexual assault against a white woman.

According to the Maryland Lynching Memorial Project, Simms’ narrative is as follows:

The young victim of an alleged assault near Odenton identified John Simms, a farmer from Virginia, as her attacker. He was arrested and jailed in Annapolis. A mob of at least ten men, led by an elderly White man, traveled to Annapolis, broke into the jail, and searched for Simms. Although he resisted, Simms was eventually seized by the mob. Still shackled, Simms was dragged into the “dark woods” near an area known as Perry Gate and hanged from a tree.

If you want to get involved in lynching memorialization in Anne Arundel County, MD, reach out to Connecting the Dots.

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Learn more about John Simms:

Maryland Lynching Memorial Project Archives

Maryland State Archives

A newspaper article on Simms’ lynching.

“Do you ask the remedy? A public sentiment strong against lawlessness must be aroused. Every individual can contribute to this awakening. When a sentiment against lynch law as strong, deep and mighty as that roused against slavery prevails, I have no fear of the result.

It should be already established as a fact and not as a theory, that every human being must have a fair trial for his life and liberty, no matter what the charge against him. When a demand goes up from fearless and persistent reformers from press and pulpit, from industrial and moral associations that this shall be so from Maine to Texas and from ocean to ocean, a way will be found to make it so.” –Ida B. Wells

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A flag flying from NAACP headquarters in New York. It flew for the first time in 1936 in response to the lynching of A. L. McCamy in Dalton, Georgia.

Sources and Further Reading:

“LYNCH LAW IN ALL ITS PHASES”. Speech given by Ida B. Wells on February 13, 1893.

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More than a Victim: Known Narratives of Lynching Victims in the United States

Trigger Warning: This post speaks extensively about racially-motivated, extrajudicial murders perpetuated against the Black community in the United States. It also includes graphic images. Discretion is advised.