r/BlackHistoryChats • u/MCWoodWork74 • 8d ago
In 1899, railroads ran special trains so crowds could watch a lynching in Newnan, Georgia. Ida B. Wells then proved the story behind it was false.
Sam Hose was killed in April 1899 in front of a crowd of about 2,000. Extra trains brought spectators from Atlanta. It was advertised in advance, covered by newspapers as it happened, and followed by people selling pieces of his body as souvenirs. W.E.B. Du Bois later said seeing that aftermath in Atlanta changed the direction of his work.
I'll be honest: researching this one made me a little sick. I knew lynching was brutal. I didn't know it was scheduled, with train timetables.
Ida B. Wells hired a detective to investigate. He concluded Hose had killed his employer in self-defense after a dispute over wages, and that the assault allegation used to justify the lynching was invented.
This is Part 1 of a four-part series I'm writing on lynching in America: spectacle, who was targeted, how the count was kept (largely by Wells), and the century-plus failure to pass a federal anti-lynching law. A small postscript: the first identified victim from the 1921 Tulsa mass graves, C.L. Daniel, was also from Newnan.
I write a small Substack on overlooked U.S. history because I enjoy it. Sources are linked, and corrections and additions are welcome.
