Racial Terror Lynchings in America
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Lynching of Samuel Smith

Racial Terror Lynchings in America, also, Lynching of Samuel Smith. . Racial Terror Lynchings in America. Thousands of African American men, women, and children were the victims of lynching and racial terror violence in the United States in the century following the end of the Civil War. As the federal protection of the Reconstruction era ended, African Americans seeking equal rights suffered violent abuse and resistance from white supremacists, leading to decades of political, social and economic exploitation. Jim Crow laws and threats of violence were used not only to deny African Americans their rights, but also to punish those who disobeyed the racial hierarchy. Lynchings became the most public and notorious form of racial terrorism. Intended to intimidate African Americans and enforce racial segregation. These lynchings took place across the country and were perpetrated by people with no connection to one another, yet these rituals often included many of the same elements including abductions by a large mob (often from police custody), returning the victim to the scene of the alleged crime, stripping the victim further inflict humiliation, and torture or mutilation. Many of the names of lynching victims were not recorded and remain unknown, but over 200 documented lynchings took place in Tennessee alone, at least six having taken place in Davidson County. , Lynching of Samuel Smith. The last known or recorded lynching in Davidson County took place in 1924 near this site. Around midnight on December 14, 1924, a mob of at least six armed, white, masked men entered Nashville General Hospital and abducted Samuel Smith, age 15. The men quickly identified Smith, who was in police custody and chained to his bed. Nurse Amy Weagle attempted to hide the chain in an effort to thwart the abduction. In the early hours of December 15, the mob drove Smith to Frank Hill Road. Now Old Burkett Road, near the site of the alleged robbery and shooting that led to his arrest. The mob stripped Smith of his pajamas, hung him from a tree with a thin rope, and shot him multiple times. Despite a grand jury investigation, public outcry and a reward offer in local newspapers, no one was ever arrested, charged or held accountable for the murder of Samuel Smith. This act of racial terror was meant not only to punish Smith for his alleged crimes, but to intimidate the local African American community and reinforce the racial hierarchy through violence. Though passed down for generations in the community, this story has now been spoken of openly in an effort toward reconciliation.