Lynching in America / The Lynching of Richard Robertson

Lynching in America, also, The Lynching of Richard Robertson. Community Remembrance Project. Lynching in America. Racial terror lynching claimed the lives of at least 6,500 Black people in the United States between 1865 and 1859. After the Civil War, many white people remained committed to white supremacy and used lethal violence to maintain racial, economic and social control over Black communities. In 1865, newspapers reported that white mobs burned Black churches and homes in Mobile and that 138 Black people were killed in Alabama over the course of several months. In 1869, riots in Mobile left at least 3 Black people killed whose names were not identified. Lynching emerged as the most public and notorious form of racial terrorism, and white mobs of up to thousands of people targeted Black men, women, and children for participating in politics, working towards economic independence, violation arbitrary social customs, engaging in interracial relationships, and being accused of crimes. Black people faced a presumption of guilt at even the suggestion of attempted violence, especially if the accusation was made by a white person. Using this to justify the lawless mob murder of Black people, public officials and law enforcement regularly declined or failed to protect Black people who were regularly pulled from jails, prisons, courtrooms, or out of police custody and lynched by white mobs. In addition to lynchings that occurred between 1865 and 1876, at least 6 more Black people were lynched in Mobile County between 1877 and 1950., The Lynching of Richard Robertson. On January 23, 1909, a mob of about 30 white men abducted Richard Robertson, a 43-year-old Black man, from the Mobile County jail and lynched him on a tree within sight of the jail. Mr. Robertson had been working as a carpenter on a home in downtown Mobile when two white plumbers, also working on the home, accused him of assault. Without further investigation into the accusation, a warrant was issued for Mr. Robertson's arrest. When two white deputies arrived to arrest Mr. Robertson, he objected and ultimately fled after an exchange of gunfire left all three wounded. An officer found Mr. Robertson, suffering from three gunshot wounds, arrested him and took him to the downtown jail. Following news that one of the deputies died, rumors circulated of plans to lynch Mr. Robertson. Despite warnings that a white mob planned to abduct and lynch Mr. Robertson, the sheriff and local law enforcement did nothing to protect him from the impending mob violence. In the early morning hours of January 23, mere hours after Mr. Robertson had been released from the infirmary, a lynch mob kidnapped him from his cell and dragged him through the streets in his underwear as he begged for his life, before firing several shots and hanging him two blocks away from the central police station. Lynch mobs regularly used the lethal violence to deny due process to Black people. Nobody was ever Prosecuted for the lynching of Richard Robertson.