Lynching in America
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The Lynching of Henry Howard

Lynching in America, also, The Lynching of Henry Howard. Community Remembrance Project. , Lynching in America. Following the Civil War, violent resistance to equal rights for African Americans and an ideology of White supremacy flourished not only in the South, but across the United States. Lynching emerged as a notorious form of racial terrorism intended to intimidate Black people and enforce racial hierarchy and segregation. More than 6.500 Black people were lynched in the United States between 1865 and 1950. During this era, White people's allegations against Black people were rarely subject to scrutiny and often sparked violent reactions. even when there was no evidence tying the accused to any offense. Stereotypes about Black men being a dangerous threat to White women fueled violence against Black men like Henry Howard. These false narratives led to Ohio's 1877 anti-miscegenation law. which outlawed interracial relationships. It was not uncommon for lynch mobs to seize their victims from jails or courtrooms, and law enforcement rarely used force to resist White mobs intent on killing Black people. Officials largely tolerated these lawless killings by declining to hold White mob participants accountable. Racial terror in states like Ohio featured many of the same characteristics as Southern lynchings, including public spectacle lynchings in front of crowds numbering in the thousands. Lynching inflicted trauma upon the entire African American community and claimed the lives of at least 15 Black people across the state of Ohio., The Lynching of Henry Howard. Near this site on June 19, 1885. a mob of about 1.000 White people lynched Henry Howard, a Black man who had arrived in Coshocton the previous day to seek work in the mines. On the evening of June 18, reports emerged that two young. White women had been assaulted a mile east of West Lafayette. Soon thereafter, Mr. Howard was passing a saloon near Coshocton when a White man saw him and presumed him guilty of the assault. The man seized Mr. Howard and handed him over to the sheriff, who jailed him. A mob immediately surrounded the jail and grew throughout the next day to prevent Mr. Howard from being transferred to another county. Around II p.m. that night, masked men marched down Chestnut Street. According to one local newspaper, they raided the jail "without the least show of resistance on the part of the Sheriff." Intent on depriving Mr. Howard of his right to a fair trial, they dragged Mr. Howard to the court square, where they were met with cheers. There, they lynched Mr. Howard and left his body hanging until the next morning. Members of the mob took parts of Mr. Howard's corpse as souvenirs, and one of his toes was displayed in a jewelry store on Main Street well into the 20th century. After the lynching, a Black barber in Coshocton received a note threatening to lynch any Black man caught with a White woman and warning all Black people to leave town. No one was held accountable for the lynching of Henry Howard.