On September 18, 1921, 16-year-old Eugene Daniel was lynched for walking into a

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...

girl's bedroom.

Lynching

On Friday, September 16, 1921, five east of

Pittsboro, North Carolina Pittsboro is a town in Chatham County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 3,743 at the 2010 census and 4,537 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Chatham County. The town was established in the late 18th century, shortly a ...

, black 16-year-old Eugene Daniel wanted to borrow some twine. He walked into a neighbors house and startled a white girl, Gertrude the daughter of homeowner Walter Stone. Eugene Daniel quickly ran away but on Saturday, September 17, 1921, a

bloodhound The bloodhound is a large scent hound, originally bred for hunting deer, wild boar and, since the Middle Ages, for tracking people. Believed to be descended from hounds once kept at the Abbey of Saint-Hubert, Belgium, in French it is called, ''l ...

was acquired from

Raeford, North Carolina Raeford is a city in Hoke County, North Carolina, United States. Its population was 4,611 at the 2010 census, and in 2018, the estimated population was 4,962. It is the county seat of Hoke County. History John McRae and A.A. Williford operated ...

. The hound tracked Daniel down and he was arrested. That night a mob formed and over-powered jailer W.H. Taylor and seized him from the jail where he was being held. Near the Moore Springs Bridge on the old Raleigh road, he was lynched using an auto chain and the body was riddled with bullets. The dangling body became a tourist attraction for white residents and on Monday, September 19, 1921, 1,000 people trekked to see it. In the 1970s, the area was submerged with water from the creation of

Jordan Lake B. Everett Jordan Lake is a reservoir in New Hope Valley, west of Cary and south of Durham in Chatham County, North Carolina, in the United States; the northernmost end of the lake extends into southwestern Durham County. Part of the Jordan ...

Red Summer

Two years earlier there were several incidents of civil unrest 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 DC. 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.

National memorial

The National Memorial for Peace and Justice The National Memorial for Peace and Justice, informally known as the National Lynching Memorial, is a national memorial to commemorate the black victims of lynching in the United States. It is intended to focus on and acknowledge past racial te ...

opened in

Montgomery, Alabama Montgomery is the capital city of the U.S. state of Alabama and the county seat of Montgomery County. Named for the Irish soldier Richard Montgomery, it stands beside the Alabama River, on the coastal Plain of the Gulf of Mexico. In the 202 ...

, on April 26, 2018, in a setting of . Featured among other things, is a sculpture by

Kwame Akoto-Bamfo Kwame Akoto-Bamfo (born 1983) is a multi-disciplinary artist, educator and activist, known for his sculptures and massive body of works dedicated to the memory, healing and Restorative Justice for people of African descent. His outdoor sculptur ...

of a mother with a chain around her neck and an infant in her arms. On a hill overlooking the sculpture is the Memorial Corridor which displays 805 hanging steel rectangles, each representing the counties in the United States where a documented lynching took place and, for each county, the names of those lynched. At the memorial there are six lynching victims in Chatham County between the years 1885 and 1921: *Harriet Finch, Jerry Finch, Lee Tyson, John Pattishall - September 30, 1885, the group was lynched for allegedly being axe murderers. Harriet Finch is 1 of only 4 lynchings of women to occur in North Carolina. *Henry Jones - January 12, 1899, Jones was lynched after being accused of raping and murdering Nancy Welch/Welsh, a white widow in Chatham County in January 1899. *Eugene Daniel

Bibliography

Notes References * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Daniel, Eugene 1921 deaths 1921 murders in the United States Lynching deaths in North Carolina People from Jones County, Georgia People murdered in North Carolina 1921 crimes in the United States 1921 in North Carolina 1921 riots in the United States Jones County, Georgia African-American history of North Carolina Riots and civil disorder in North Carolina White American riots in the United States Racially motivated violence against African Americans History of North Carolina