Killings
On Monday, July 23, 1900, Charles sat on the front steps of a house in New Orleans talking with a friend, while waiting to rendezvous with his girlfriend, Virginia Banks, who lived on the block. Three white police officers, Sergeant Jules C. Aucion, August T. Mora, and Joseph D. Cantrelle, investigated reports of "two suspicious looking negroes" sitting on a porch in a predominantly white neighborhood. They found Robert Charles and his roommate, 19-year-old Leonard Pierce, at the scene. The policemen questioned the two men, demanding to know what they "were doing and how long they had been there." One of the two men replied that they were "waiting for a friend." Charles stood up, which the police took as an aggressive move. Mora grabbed him and the two struggled. Mora hit Charles with his billy club. Mora and Charles pulled guns and exchanged shots. Reports vary on who drew first; both men received non-lethal gunshot wounds to the legs. Charles fled to his residence, leaving a trail of blood. At Charles' residence, two officers, Officer Lamb and Captain Day, arrived and attempted to arrest Charles, but he brandished a rifle and shot and killed them both. Charles then fled on foot and the police initiated a manhunt. On Tuesday July 24th, following the initiation of a manhunt, several New Orleans newspapers, especially the ''Times-Democrat'', blamed the black community for Charles' crimes. Outraged white residents gathered in armed mobs and began roaming the streets, ostensibly searching for the fugitive Charles. In the following days, several race riots occurred as the armed white mobs confronted and attacked black residents. On the night of the July 25, white mobs killed three blacks and wounded six more so severely that they had to be hospitalized. Five whites were also hospitalized, and more than 50 people suffered lesser injuries. Charles had taken refuge at 1208 Saratoga Street, where he remained safe from the police until Friday, July 27. Upon receiving a tip about the whereabouts of Charles from an informant, police searched the house. As the officers neared Charles' hiding place beneath the stairs, Charles opened fire, killing two of the officers gt Gabe Porteus and Corporal John Lally Other officers, upon hearing the gunshots, quickly brought in reinforcements to both surround Charles and to protect the black residents from white mob violence. Historian William Ivy Hair described the scene: Throughout the day, the police fired on the house, where Charles returned fire from the second-story windows. By 5pm, Charles had killed or fatally wounded five law officers, and wounded nineteen other persons. Yet more rioters continued to arrive. Under constant fire, and with no chance of entry without being shot, the rioters decided to light the house on fire to get him to leave his cover. While continuing to shoot, Charles attempted to flee the house, but on opening the door he was instantly shot by a special policeman and afterwards riddled with the bullets of the armed white mob. The mob then mutilated Charles' body.Reception
Following his death, journalist Ida Wells-Barnett lauded Charles' actions. In her study on lynchings, she wrote: "See also
* Robert Charles riots *References
Further reading
* ''Mob Rule in New Orleans: Robert Charles and His Fight to Death.'' by Ida B. Wells-Barnett (1900). * ''Carnival of Fury: Robert Charles and the New Orleans Race Riot of 1900.'' By William Ivy Hair. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State Press,1976. * ''America and its People,'' Volume 2 From 1865 - 1988. Page 599 "Rise Brothers!": The Black Response to Jim Crow; by James Kirby Martin, Randy Roberts, Steven Mintz, Linda O. McMurry, James H. Jones, Publisher : Scott, Foresmans and Company, 1865 births 1900 deaths African-American people People from New Orleans People in 19th-century Louisiana Deaths by firearm in Louisiana {{US-crime-bio-stub