Julie Hayden (August 21, 1874), sometimes Julia Hayden, was an American seventeen-year-old Black school teacher murdered by members of the White Man's League within days of starting a teaching position at a school for Black children in

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

Early life and education

Hayden grew up in Spring Hill in Maury County, Tennessee. She attended

Central Tennessee College Walden University was a historically black college in Nashville, Tennessee. It was founded in 1865 by missionaries from the Northern United States on behalf of the Methodist Church to serve freedmen. Known as Central Tennessee College from 1865 to ...

in Nashville, a teachers' college for Black students.

Murder

Hayden moved from Nashville to Hartsville in Trousdale County, Tennessee to "educate black people". At the time teaching Black people to read was "interpreted as a challenge to white control". At the time of the murder, Hayden was staying with Emery Lowe and his wife, Pink, as a boarder. Three days after her arrival in Hartsville, on August 21 at 2:00 am, the Lowe home was invaded by members of the White Man's League, who chased her through the house and shot and killed her. According to ''

Harper's Weekly ''Harper's Weekly, A Journal of Civilization'' was an American political magazine based in New York City. Published by Harper & Brothers from 1857 until 1916, it featured foreign and domestic news, fiction, essays on many subjects, and humor, ...

'', "Her murderers escaped, nor is it likely that the death of Julia Hayden will ever be avenged, unless the nation insists upon the extermination of the White Man's League." In August 1874, the '' Republican Banner'' reported that the Superintendent of Public Instruction, Colonel John Fleming, had requested Robert S. Smith, the Trousdale County Superintendent, provide a report on the murder. In September 1874, Black citizens of Spring Hill, where Hayden's family lived, petitioned Tennessee Governor John C. Brown to find and arrest the murderers. Charges were filed against Pat Lyons and J. Bowen Saunders. During the trial, Saunders admitted that he had killed two Black people. In October 1874 the accused were released on $3500 bail. According to Alan Friedlander and Richard Allen Garber, Hayden "became the poster child of southern violence".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hayden, Julie 1850s births 1874 deaths Year of birth uncertain 1874 murders in the United States 19th-century African-American women African-American schoolteachers Schoolteachers from Tennessee 19th-century American women educators 19th-century American educators Assassinated educators White League Deaths by firearm in Tennessee Female murder victims People murdered in Tennessee African-American history of Tennessee History of women in Tennessee