ourthouse, where it was hanged to a center pole. The rope broke and the
corpse dropped with a thud, but it was again hoisted, the charred legs
barely touching the ground. The teeth were knocked out and the
fingernails cut off as souvenirs. The crowd made so much noise that the
police interfered. Undertaker Walsh was telephoned for, who took
charge of the body and carried it to his establishment, where it will be
prepared for burial in the potter's field today.

[Illustration: Scene of lynching at Clanton, Alabama, August 1891.]

[Illustration: Facsimile of back of photograph. W.R. MARTIN, Traveling
Photographer. (Handwritten: This S.O.B. was hung at Clanton Ala. Friday
Aug 21st/91 for murdering a little boy in cold blood for 35c in cash. He
is a good specimen of your "Black Christian hung by White Heathens"
[illegible] of the Committee.)]

A prelude to this exhibition of nineteenth-century barbarism was the
following telegram received by the _Chicago Inter Ocean_, at 2 o'clock,
Saturday afternoon--ten hours before the lynching:

MEMPHIS TENN., July 22, To _Inter-Ocean_, Chicago.

Lee Walker, colored man, accused of raping white women, in jail here,
will be taken out and burned by whites tonight. Can you send Miss Ida
Wells to write it up? Answer. R.M. Martin, with _Public Ledger_.

The _Public Ledger_ is one of the oldest evening daily papers in Memphis,
and this telegram shows that the intentions of the mob were well known
long before they were executed. The personnel of the mob is given by the
_Memphis Appeal-Avalanche_. It says, "At first it seemed as if a crowd of
roughs were the principals, but as it increased in size, men in all walks
of life figured as leaders, although the majority were young men."

This was the punishment meted out to a Negro, charged, not with rape, but
attempted assault, and without any proof as to his guilt, for the women
were not given a chance to identify him. It was only a little less
horrible than the burning alive of Henry Smith, at Paris, Texas, February
1, 1893, or that of Edward Coy, in Texarkana, Texas, February 20, 1892.
Both were charged with assault on white women, and both were tied to the
stake and burned while yet alive, in the presence of ten thousand persons.
In the case of Coy, the white woman in the case applied the match, even
while the victim protested his innocence.

The cut which is here given is the exact reproduction of the photograph
taken