John Hartfield was a black man who was

lynched Lynching is an extrajudicial killing by a group. It is most often used to characterize informal public executions by a mob in order to punish an alleged transgressor, punish a convicted transgressor, or intimidate people. It can also be an ex ...

in Ellisville,

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

in 1919 for allegedly having a white girlfriend. The murder was announced a day in advance in major newspapers, a crowd of as many as 10,000 watched while Hartfield was hanged, shot, and burned. Pieces of his corpse were chopped off and sold as souvenirs.

History

John Hartfield left his home in Ellisville seeking a better life in

East St. Louis East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the f ...

. In 1919, he traveled back to Ellisville to visit his white girlfriend, Ruth Meeks, taking a job as a hotel porter in

Laurel Laurel may refer to: Plants * Lauraceae, the laurel family * Laurel (plant), including a list of trees and plants known as laurel People * Laurel (given name), people with the given name * Laurel (surname), people with the surname * Laurel (mus ...

. When the relationship became known to some white men, they determined to kill Hartfield. They accused Hartfield of raping Meeks, who they claimed was 18, although she was actually in her mid-twenties. Hartfield managed to elude them for a while, but they pursued him for several weeks. Sheriff Allen Boutwell in Laurel raised donations to fund a hunting party with bloodhounds at the request of Sheriff Harbison. He was finally apprehended attempting to board a train on June 24, and was turned over to Sheriff Harbison, who placed him in the charge of a deputy and left town. The deputy immediately released him to a mob. The ''

Jackson Daily News ''The Clarion Ledger'' is an American daily newspaper in Jackson, Mississippi. It is the second-oldest company in the state of Mississippi, and is one of the few newspapers in the nation that continues to circulate statewide. It is an operating d ...

'', the ''

New Orleans States The ''New Orleans Item-Tribune'', sometimes rendered in press accounts as the ''New Orleans Item and Tribune'', was an American newspaper published in New Orleans, Louisiana, in various forms from 1871 to 1958. Early history The newspaper, ref ...

'', and other newspapers ran headlines that "John Hartfield will be lynched by Ellisville mob at 5:00 this afternoon" and additional text that "The officers have agreed to turn him over to the people of the city at 5 o'clock this afternoon when it is expected he will be burned". Hartfield had been wounded, so a white doctor, A. J. Carter, treated his wounds to keep him alive long enough to be murdered. At 5:00 PM on June 26, 1919, a large cheering crowd assembled to watch the premeditated murder of John Hartfield.

Theodore Bilbo Theodore Gilmore Bilbo (October 13, 1877 – August 21, 1947) was an American politician who twice served as governor of Mississippi (1916–1920, 1928–1932) and later was elected a U.S. Senator (1935–1947). A lifelong Democrat, he was a fi ...

, the governor of Mississippi, took no action. Hartfield was hung in a tall sweet gum tree, then his body was riddled with bullets, then brought to the ground where men cut up the corpse for souvenirs, finally burning what remained. Afterward, commemorative postcards of the lynching were created and sent out. A story circulated among whites that Hartfield had been hanged from the very same tree where the confederates had hanged three insurgents in the civil war. Governor Bilbo declared "This is a white man's country, with a white man's civilization and any dream on the part of the Negro race to share social and political equality will be shattered in the end". Days later, a black man in Perry County was murdered by a mob because he mentioned Hartfield's death. In the 1920s,

Ho Chi Minh (: ; born ; 19 May 1890 – 2 September 1969), commonly known as ('Uncle Hồ'), also known as ('President Hồ'), (' Old father of the people') and by other aliases, was a Vietnamese revolutionary and statesman. He served as Prime ...

cited the treatment of Hartsfield in his ''Selected Works''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hartfield, John 1919 deaths 1919 murders in the United States 1919 in Mississippi Human trophy collecting Lynching victims in the United States Lynching deaths in Mississippi Murdered African-American people People murdered in Mississippi Male murder victims Prisoners murdered in custody September 1919 events Crimes in Mississippi Racially motivated violence against African Americans African-American history between emancipation and the civil rights movement Anti-black racism in the United States African-American history of Mississippi History of racism in Mississippi People from Ellisville, Mississippi