Lynching In America
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The Lynching of Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Daniel Morrow

Lynching In America, also, The Lynching of Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Daniel Morrow. Community Remembrance Project. Lynching in America. Between 1865 and 1950, white mobs lynched over 6,500 black people across the United states. After the Civil war, most white people continue to support racially hierarchy and refuse to accept emancipation and black citizenship. The Reconstruction era's initial hope and progress gave way to devastating, deadly violence, as white people attacked black people for ascertaining economic rights, being accused of crimes, or being perceived as a threat to the racial order. The deep racial hostility that terminated Southern Society burdened black people with a presumption of guilt that often serve to focus suspicion on black communities after a crime was reported, whether evidence supported that suspicion or not. Accusations lodged against black people were rarely subject to serious scrutiny, and race, rather than the alleged defense, most often played a key role in the lynchings. Racial error lynchings were not the actions of a few extremists. Rather, they were bold, public acts at implicated the entire community and sent a clear message that black people were less than human. This message was reinforced as white officials failed to hold mobs accountable for their crimes, allowing them to continue terrorizing black community members. Although many victims of racial Terror lynchings will never be known, over 180 lynchings have been documented in North Carolina between 1865 and 1950, with at least six known to have taken place in Orange county., The Lynching of Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Daniel Morrow. During the summer and fall of 1869 a mob of white people in Orange County terrorized and lynched three black family members: Washington Morrow, Thomas Jefferson Morrow, and Daniel Morrow. When three barns belonging to white men burned down in July, local white residents pointed suspicion at the Morrows, a family of sharecroppers who months before had been evicted by one of the barn owners. Two young Morrow brothers, Washington and Nelson, were arrested and held in the Hillsborough jail. Around midnight on August 7, a mob of 100 or so armed white men broke into the jail, seized the brothers, and dragged them out of town. After purporting to let them go following an interrogation, the mob shot at Washington and Nelson as they fled. A bullet struck Washington in the thigh, and he died shortly after. Months later, on October 14, a mob of 25 white people stormed the homes of the brothers' father, Thomas Jefferson Morrow, and their uncle, Daniel Morrow. As their families watched, the assailants put ropes around the men's necks, dragged them outside, and kicked and beat them. The mob then hanged both men from a nearby tree, leaving their bodies suspended overnight with a placard that read "for barn burnings and threats." The mob also threatened to kill the men's wives and children, but they managed to escape. Though some mob members were publicly identified, no one was ever held accountable for lynching Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Daniel Morrow.