Racial Terrorism and Criminal Justice / Lynching in Irondale

Racial Terrorism and Criminal Justice, also, Lynching in Irondale. Community Remembrance Project. Racial Terrorism and Criminal Justice. Racial terror lynching between 1865 and 1950 claimed the lives of thousands of African Americans and created a legacy of injustice that can still be felt today. After emancipation, white Southerners remained committed to an ideology of white supremacy and used fatal violence and terror against Black communities to perpetuate the racial hierarchy and exploitative practices established during slavery. Lynching became the most public and notorious form of racial terrorism and was generally tolerated in communities with functioning criminal justice systems. White mobs targeted Black women, men, and children who exercised their civil rights, defied racial social customs, or were accused of crimes. Denied due process and equal protection under the law, often based on mere accusations, lynching victims were regularly pulled from jails or delivered to mobs by law enforcement officers required to protect them. Race, rather than the alleged offense. most often contributed to the fates of lynching victims like William Wardley. Of the more than 360 documented racial terror lynchings that took place in Alabama, at least 30 have been documented in Jefferson County.

Lynching in Irondale. On December 7, 1896, William Wardley, a Black man, was lynched by an armed mob of white Irondale residents. That day, Mr. Wardley, along with two companions, attempted to purchase apples from a local grocery store. The merchant refused to accept Mr. Wardley's money because he assumed it was counterfeit. During this era, a white person's allegation against a Black person would rarely be subject to scrutiny and often sparked violent reprisal, even when there was no evidence of a crime. Based on this accusation, a mob, which included a local minister and a police constable, formed and pursued Mr. Wardley and his companions before fatally shooting Mr. Wardley. His body was later found along a railroad track a little over a mile outside of town. His two companions survived. After the lynching of Mr. Wardley, the U.S. Treasury Department investigated the counterfeit claim and proved the money was real. However, the Treasury Department's report did not mention Mr. Wardley's death, and white residents continued to maintain the false counterfeit claim to justify the mob's violent actions. The local press, sympathetic to the mob, reported that Mr. Wardley caused his own death to avoid capture by the authorities. No one was ever held accountable for William Wardley's lynching.