Lynching in America
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Lynching of George Johnson

Lynching in America, also, Lynching of George Johnson. Community Remembrance Project. , Lynching in America. Kansas was established as a free state in 1861 following violent conflict over the legality of slavery in the new territory. After the Civil War, emancipated Black people began migrating to Kansas from Southern states in pursuit of freedom and rights as citizens. The city of Atchison grew tremendously between 1860 and 1870 with new Black residents. Throughout Reconstruction, many white communities opposed equal rights for Black people and resorted to violent acts of intimidation and repression including racial terror lynchings. Kansas was no exception. Racial bigotry, discrimination, segregation and abuse was pervasive. White mobs frequently displayed a complete disregard for the legal system by seizing Black people from jails and police custody to carry out lynching violence. Law enforcement, although armed and responsible for protecting Black people, frequently failed to intervene. The end of Reconstruction in 1877 ushered in an era of widespread racial terror lynching, often with no legal repercussions for white mobs, who acted with impunity. Between 1865 and 1950, white mobs lynched over 6,500 Black people in the United States. There are 22 racial terror lynchings documented in Kansas, with at least one known victim in Atchison County. Many more Black people are believed to have been lynched whose deaths may never be documented., Lynching of George Johnson. On January 4, 1870, a mob of at least 50 white men lynched a Black man named George Johnson in Atchison, Kansas. Five days prior, Mr. Johnson had accidentally injured a white man while hunting. In fear of the retaliatory violence often inflicted on Black people by white mobs, Mr. Johnson fled the scene. Shortly after, Mr. Johnson surrendered himself to local authorities and was held in the jail at 6th and Santa Fe. The county attorney indicated that criminal charges against Mr. Johnson for the shooting were unlikely as his only alleged crime was fleeing the scene. On January 4, it was rumored that a lynch mob was coming for Mr. Johnson that night, but law enforcement refused to take precautions in order to protect him. At 11:30 pm, the white mob broke into the jail, with no resistance from the deputy on duty, and shot at Mr. Johnson three times. Then the mob placed a rope around Mr. Johnson's neck, beat him, and dragged him to the intersection of 4th and Commercial, where the mob fired several more shots into Mr. Johnson's body. Despite the gruesome torture, Mr. Johnson was still alive. The mob carried him to the 5th Street Viaduct where they hanged him. Even though a massive crowd of at least 2,000 witnesses were present, no one was ever indicted or held accountable for the lynching of George Johnson.