Berry Washington ( – May 26, 1919) was a 72-year-old black man who was lynched in
Milan, Georgia, in 1919. He was in jail after killing a white man who was attacking two young girls. He was taken from jail and lynched by a mob.
History
At 1:00 am on the morning of May 24, 1919, two white men, John Dandy and Levi Evans, went into the black section of Milan. They first tried to get into the home of Emma McCollers who had two young daughters. When the family refused to open the door Dandy fired his gun. This caused the girls to flee to another house, the home of widow Emma Tisber. The two men followed and invaded the Tisber home and attempted to assault two young black girls. When the two girls attempted to hide under the porch, Dandy and Evans began ripping up the floor to get to them. Washington, a black man, attempted to defend the girls and get the men to leave. Dandy fired at Washington and after a struggle, Washington, who was 72 years old, shot and killed Dandy, "He fell with his
pistol in his right hand and a cigarette in the other, and a flask of liquor fell out of his pocket."
Washington went uptown and woke up the chief of police, Mr. Stuckey, who sent Washington to the
McRae jail at 2:00 am May 24, 1919. There he stayed in jail until the 25th, at 12 o’clock, when a crowd of white men, led by a
Baptist
Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only ( believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compe ...
minister, removed Washington from the jail. To possibly hide their crimes all black residents of Milan were rounded up and ordered out of the town on the night of May 25th. At 2:00 am on May 26 the lynch mob hung him from a post and shot him repeatedly until his body fell in pieces from the post. White residents rioted in the city, damaging and burning many black homes. They threatened black citizens, lest they dare to speak out about the events in public.
Local authorities attempted to cover up the incident, but a local preacher, Reverend Judson Dinkins, sent a letter to
Monroe Work
Monroe Nathan Work (August 15, 1866 – May 2, 1945) was an African-American sociologist who founded the Department of Records and Research at the Tuskegee Institute in 1908. His published works include the ''Negro Year Book'' and '' A Bibliograph ...
at the
Tuskegee Institute
Tuskegee University (Tuskegee or TU), formerly known as the Tuskegee Institute, is a private, historically black land-grant university in Tuskegee, Alabama. It was founded on Independence Day in 1881 by the state legislature.
The campus was de ...
, who in turn passed the letter to
John Shillady of the
NAACP. When
Governor of Georgia Hugh Dorsey
Hugh Manson Dorsey (July 10, 1871 – June 11, 1948) was an American lawyer who was notable as the prosecuting attorney in the Leo Frank prosecution of 1913, that subsequently led to a lynching after Frank's death sentence was reduced to life ...
(term 1917–1921) became aware of the incident, he offered a $1,000 reward for the arrest and conviction of the mob. Dr. Floyd McRae offered an additional $500 reward, for a total of $1,500 ($ in ). Although the perpetrators were well known in the community, no one claimed the reward, and no one was ever charged for the murder. Washington's corpse was left there for a full day.
In September 1919, it was reported that Georgia Judge E. D. Graham ordered the city of
McRae, Georgia, to take action and possibly remove Sheriff Williams as a result of the lynching. It was also alleged that one of the McRae deputies was a ringleader in the killing.
Aftermath
This was not the only incident of racial violence in Georgia in 1919. There were a number of riots, some of which are listed below:
These race riots were one of several incidents of civil unrest that began in the so-called
American Red Summer of 1919. Terrorist attacks on black communities and white oppression in over three dozen cities and counties. In most cases, white mobs attacked African American neighborhoods. In some cases, black community groups resisted the attacks, especially in Chicago and Washington, D.C. Most deaths occurred in rural areas during events like the
Elaine Race Riot
The Elaine massacre occurred on September 30–October 2, 1919 at Hoop Spur in the vicinity of Elaine in rural Phillips County, Arkansas. As many as several hundred African Americans and five white men were killed. Estimates of deaths made in ...
in Arkansas, where an estimated 100 to 240 black people and 5 white people were killed. Also in 1919 were the
Chicago Race Riot and
Washington D.C. race riot which killed 38 and 39 people respectively. Both had many more non-fatal injuries and extensive property damage reaching into the millions of dollars.
Bibliography
Notes
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Washington, Berry
1840s births
1919 deaths
1919 murders in the United States
Deaths by firearm in Georgia (U.S. state)
Lynching deaths in Georgia (U.S. state)
People from Dodge County, Georgia
People from Telfair County, Georgia
People murdered in Georgia (U.S. state)
1919 crimes in the United States
1919 in Christianity
1919 in Georgia (U.S. state)
1919 riots in the United States
May 1919 events
Jenkins County, Georgia
African-American history of Georgia (U.S. state)
Arson in Georgia (U.S. state)
Riots and civil disorder in Georgia (U.S. state)
White American riots in the United States
Racially motivated violence against African Americans
Red Summer
History of Georgia (U.S. state)
Crimes against police officers in the United States
Attacks on African-American churches
History of Baptists