Stephen Williams 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,

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 ...

Upper Marlboro, Maryland Upper Marlboro, officially the Town of Upper Marlboro, is the seat of Prince George's County, Maryland. Aso of the 2020 census, the population was 652. although Greater Upper Marlboro is many times larger. Etymology Upper Marlboro was establ ...

on October 20, 1894. Williams had confessed to assaulting Mrs. Katie Hardesty, an offense described as "one of the most brutal in the criminal annals of Prince George's County" and was locked up in the Jail in Upper Marlboro. A group of masked men broke into the jail and pulled Williams from under his mattress, put a rope around his neck and dragged him from the jail. Williams was dragged to the "iron bridge just between the town and the railroad depot." The rope was thrown over the top beams of the bridge and Williams was "hauled up." A round of gunfire was unleashed into Williams' hanging body and the corpse was left dangling on the bridge. This was the same bridge that Joe Vermillion was lynched on in 1889.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Stephen 1894 deaths 1894 in Maryland 1894 murders in the United States African-American history of Prince George's County, Maryland Williams, Stephen Racially motivated violence against African Americans Prince George's County, Maryland October 1894 events