Lynching of Jim Taylor

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Lynching of Jim Taylor
LocationMurfreesboro Road, Franklin, Tennessee, U.S.
DateApril 29, 1891
Attack type
Lynching
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Jim Taylor was an African-American man who was lynched on April 30, 1891 in Franklin, Tennessee.

Lynching

Jim Taylor was an African American man who lived and worked as a sharecropper on a farm owned by James Hodge, two miles from Franklin.[1] He was described as "a very large negro", who was "feared by his own race and regarded as desperate" by The Daily American,[1] and as "a dangerous character" by The Leaf-Chronicle.[2]

On April 29, 1891, a circus troupe with many African Americans was in Franklin.[1] Taylor went to Franklin and reportedly shot a circus artist named Morrellton.[2] A policeman named Charles Cook tried to arrest him, and Taylor reportedly shot him in the neck.[1][2] Taylor was arrested.[1] He reportedly carried two guns and a knife.[1] He was taken to the Williamson County Jail in Franklin.[1]

At 10p.m., a mob entered the jail and dragged him out of his cell.[1][2] They took him to the bridge on Murfreesboro Road (near modern-day Pinkerton Park), where they hanged him and riddled his body with bullets.[1][2][3] The mob, who were on horseback, left shortly after,[2] and Taylor's body was found the next morning.[1]

The lynchers were not identified.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "Judge Lynch Presided. Would-Be Murderer Strung Up at Franklin. His Most Atrocious Assault on an Officer Avenged. The Body Dangling by the Roadside on the Outskirts. He Also Shot a Circus Man, Who Was Brought to Nashville for Treatment--A Deserved Fate". The Daily American. Nashville, Tennessee. April 30, 1891. Retrieved May 14, 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. ^ a b c d e f "Taken from the Jail and Hanged". The Leaf-Chronicle. Clarksville, Tennessee. May 1, 1891. p. 1. Retrieved May 14, 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ^ Berger, Paul (December 20, 2014). "Midnight in Tennessee - The Untold Story of the First Jewish Lynching in America". Haaretz. Retrieved May 15, 2018. Three years later, Jim Taylor, a black man accused of shooting a policeman, was seized by a mob from Williamson County's sheriff and hung from the Murfreesboro Pike bridge.
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