Lynching in America / The Lynching of Preston Porter, Jr.

Lynching in America, also, The Lynching of Preston Porter, Jr.. Community Remembrance Project. Lynching in America.. Racial terror lynchings between 1877 and 1950 claimed the lives of thousands of Black people and terrorized millions more who were denied equal protection under the law. After the Civil War, white resistance to equal rights for Black people and a commitment to white supremacy led to fatal violence and terror against Black women, children for pursuing equal opportunities, relationships, violating social customs or allegedly committing crimes. Lynching emerged as the most public and notorious form of racial terrorism in this era and was intended to reinforce racial subordination and segregation. Public spectacle lynchings, like the lynching of Preston Porter, Jr., were often attended by hundreds to thousands of white spectators without fear of legal repercussions. State and federal officials largely tolerated the lawless killings of Black people by refusing to hold white mobs accountable for racial terror lynchings. Law enforcement frequently failed to prevent lynchings and at times were complicit in mob violence. Although many victims of racial terror lynching were not documented and remain unknown, at least seven victims have been documented in Colorado, including Edward Bainbridge (1867, Georgetown), an unidentified man (1874, Prowers County), “Black Kid” Thomas (1881, Silverton), Joseph Dixon (1887, Ouray), Calvin Kimblern (1900, Pueblo), Washington Wallace (1902, LaJunta) and Preston Porter Jr. , The Lynching of Preston Porter, Jr.. On November 16, 1900, a white mob abducted a 15-year-old African American teenager named Preston Porter Jr. and lynched him near Limon, Colorado in Lincoln County. At least 300 people attended the public spectacle lynching of Preston, who was abandoned by state officials and law enforcement. Preston, along with his father and brother, came to Colorado from Kansas in 1900 and worked in Limon on railroad construction. That November the Porters began to return home. While in Denver on November 11, the Porters were stopped by Denver police, who questioned them about the murder of a white girl, Louise Frost, who had been found near Limon on November 8 and later died at home. The Porters denied any involvement, but the officers arrested and held them in the jail at the Denver City Hall. Suspicion focused on Preston, and police used coercive tactics to interrogate the child, including torturing him in a sweatbox and threatening to lynch his family if he did not confess. When Preston reportedly "confessed” on November 14, public calls for his lynching soon followed. Despite this, Denver officials decided to transfer young Preston back to Lincoln County by train. When the train reached Lake Station, just beyond Limon, a white mob seized Preston and waited hours for spectators to gather. The mob then chained his 105-pound body to a railroad stake and burned him to death. After Preston Porter Jr.'s lynching, no one was held accountable.