Donegan was still alive when militia arrived at the scene but died the next morning. William Donegan, an 84-year-old Black man who was married to a white woman, was taken from his home and hung from a tree across the street, where his assailants cut his throat and stabbed him. Scott Burton tried to defend himself against the attackers and was shot four times, dragged through the streets, then hung and mutilated until the national guard interceded. The violence climaxed early the next morning with the public lynching of two Black men who had nothing to do with the original alleged crime. The white mob descended upon Springfield’s Black neighborhoods, destroying homes and businesses and stealing almost $150,000 worth of property.ĭuring the riot, which left an estimated seven people dead, hundreds of Black citizens sought National Guard protection at nearby Camp Lincoln and others fled the city. On August 14, 1908, violence erupted just miles from the longtime home of Abraham Lincoln in Springfield, Illinois, when a mob of white men planning to kidnap and lynch two Black men accused of raping a white woman learned that the men had been moved from the local jail to another city. Members of the mob cut up the rope used to hang him and kept the pieces as souvenirs. His body was cut down shortly thereafter. The mob cut off his prayers and strung him up. He was pronounced dead at 3:07 a.m. He was given a chance to pray, but the mob became impatient and demanded that he be hanged at once. Bush down the street to a prominent corner in front of the courthouse, stripped him of his clothes, and placed a rope around his neck. Bush, who informed them, “Gentlemen, you are killing an innocent man.” Undeterred, the mob dragged him from his cell and pulled him into the street, where the crowd had grown to 1500 people. on June 3, 25 unmasked white men rushed the jail and began to batter down the door. The 12 guards who were assigned to defend the jail did nothing to resist the mob. Within hours, a mob of white people began to gather at the local jail.Īt 2:00 a.m. On June 2, 1893, Sam Bush was arrested for this alleged offense and placed in jail in Decatur, Illinois. On May 30, 1893, a white woman claimed she had been assaulted by a Black man in Mount Zion Township, Illinois.
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