Jim Taylor was an African-American 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 ...

on April 30, 1891 in

Franklin, Tennessee Franklin is a city in and county seat of Williamson County, Tennessee, United States. About south of Nashville, it is one of the principal cities of the Nashville metropolitan area and Middle Tennessee. As of 2020, its population was 83,454 ...

Lynching

Jim Taylor was an

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

man who lived and worked as a sharecropper on a farm owned by James Hodge, two miles from Franklin. He was described as "a very large negro", who was "feared by his own race and regarded as desperate" by '' The Daily American'', and as "a dangerous character" by ''

The Leaf-Chronicle ''The Leaf-Chronicle'' is a newspaper in the state of Tennessee, founded, officially, in 1808. First appearing as a weekly newspaper under various names as early as 1808 and eventually as the ''Clarksville Chronicle'', the current name is the re ...

''. On April 29, 1891, a circus troupe with many African Americans was in Franklin. Taylor went to Franklin and reportedly shot a circus artist named Morrellton. A policeman named Charles Cook tried to arrest him, and Taylor reportedly shot him in the neck. Taylor was arrested. He reportedly carried two guns and a knife. He was taken to the Williamson County Jail in Franklin. At 10p.m., a mob entered the jail and dragged him out of his cell. They took him to the bridge on Murfreesboro Road (near modern-day

Pinkerton Park Pinkerton Park is a 34-acre municipal park located in Franklin, Tennessee, United States at 405 Murfreesboro Road, east of the Harpeth River, near downtown Franklin. The park includes a mile-long paved pedestrian track, with exercise equipment ...

), where they hanged him and riddled his body with bullets. The mob, who were on horseback, left shortly after, and Taylor's body was found the next morning. The lynchers were not identified.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Jim 1891 deaths 1891 in Tennessee 1891 murders in the United States April 1891 events Lynching deaths in Tennessee African-American history of Tennessee