Misplaced Pages

Lynching of George Gay

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
For other uses, see George Gay.
Lynching of George Gay
Part of Jim Crow Era
News coverage of the Lynching of George Gay in Streetman, Texas in 1922
DateDecember 11, 1922
LocationStreetman a town that straddles the border of Freestone and Navarro counties in Texas
ParticipantsA white mob of Kirvin, Texas 2,000 strong
DeathsGeorge Gay

On December 11, 1922, George Gay was lynched in Streetman a town that straddles the border of Freestone and Navarro counties in Texas. He allegedly assaulted a young girl. According to the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary it was the 60th of 61 lynchings during 1922 in the United States.

Background

Tensions in the region were very high as a number of Black men had been lynched in the area. 8 miles (13 km) away from Streetman on May 6, 1922, three Black men were Lynched in Kirvin, Texas for allegedly murdering 17-year-old Eula Ausley. 60 miles (97 km) away from Streetman, in Waco, Texas, Jesse Thomas was Lynched on May 26, 1922. All were killed with little to no evidence.

In Streetman, the daughter of Mrs. W.S. Grayson, 20-year-old Miss Florine Grayson, was a teacher at Birdston school. On Monday, December 11, 1922, someone attacked her at 6:45 AM when they threw a sack over her head and stuffed her mouth with a cloth (some reports say mouth stuffed with cotton). She was able to get free and yell loud enough that help quickly arrived.

George Gay was a 25-year-old Black man that lived 200 yards (180 m) from the Grayson house. At 10:45 he was seized upon and seemed to have another piece of cloth that matched the cloth used as a gag in the attack. He was brought before Florine Grayson but she couldn't positively identify him as the attacker. Bloodhounds were asked to be brought in from Huntsville in order to find the attacker.

Lynching

Word had spread throughout the region and a crowd some 2,000 strong had gathered demanding justice. Sheriff Horace Mayo of Freestone county sensing things getting out of his control tried to move George Gay to a safer location. Before he could be moved an estimated 250 vehicles blocked the Sheriff and the mob seized George Gay. At 2:50 PM George Gay was chained to a tree and shot over 300 times.

Aftermath

A second man was implicated in the attack, Roger Payne. A Black man was almost lynched when he was mistaken by the mob as Payne. Luckily he was able to prove that he was not him and was released.

National memorial

Memorial Corridor, National Memorial for Peace and Justice

The National Memorial for Peace and Justice, in Montgomery, Alabama, displays 805 hanging steel rectangles, each representing the counties in the United States where a documented lynching took place and, for each county, the names of those lynched. The memorial hopes that communities, like Freestone or Navarro where George Gay was lynched, will take their slab and install it in their own community.

Bibliography

Notes

  1. United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary 1926, p. 17.
  2. ^ Caldwell & DeLord 2016, p. 581.
  3. ^ Corsicana Daily Sun, December 11, 1922.
  4. The Coffeyville Daily Journal, December 11, 1922.
  5. The Chickasha Daily Express, December 11, 1922, p. 1.
  6. Robertson 2018.

References


List of lynchings in the United States in 1922
Number Name Date Place Method of lynching Number of victims
1 Bill McAllister January 8, 1922 Williamsburg, S.C. Shot 1
2 Lincoln Hickson January 8, 1922 Williamsburg, S.C. Shot 1
3 Willie Jenkins January 10, 1922 Eufaula, Alabama Shot 1
4 Jake Brooks January 14, 1922 Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Hanged 1
5 Charles Strong January 17, 1922 Mayo, Florida Hanged 1
6 Will Bell January 29, 1922 Pontotoc, Mississippi Shot 1
7 Unidentified January 29, 1922 Pontotoc, Mississippi Shot
8 Drew Conner (White) January 28, 1922 Bolinger, Alabama Burned 1
9 Will Thrasher February 1, 1922 Crystal Springs, Mississippi Hanged 1
10 Harry Harrison February 2, 1922 Malvern, Arkansas Shot 1
11 Manuel Duarte February 2, 1922 Cameron County, Texas Shot 1
12 P. Norman February 11, 1922 Texarkana, Arkansas Shot 1
13 Will Jones February 13, 1922 Ellaville, Georgia Shot 1
14 William Baker March 8, 1922 Aberdeen, Mississippi Hanged 1
15 Alfred Williams March 12, 1922 Harlem, Georgia Hanged 1
16 Brown Culpepper (White) March 13, 1922 Holly Grove, Louisiana Shot 1
17 Jerry Ingram March 17, 1922 Crawford, Mississippi Shot 1
18 Unidentified (white) March 19, 1922 Okay, Oklahoma Drowned 1
19 Alexander Smith March 22, 1922 Gulfport, Mississippi Hanged 1
20 Snap Curry May 6, 1922 Kirvin, Texas Burned 1
21 H. Varney (or Johnnie Cornish) May 6, 1922 Kirvin, Texas Burned 1
22 Mose Jones May 6, 1922 Kirvin, Texas Burned 1
23 Tom Cornish May 8, 1922 Kirvin, Texas Hanged 1
24 Thomas Early May 17, 1922 Conroe, Texas Burned 1
25 Charles Atkins May 18, 1922 Davisboro, Georgia Burned 1
26 Hullen Owens May 19, 1922 Texarkana, Texas Hanged (body burned) 1
27 Joe Winters May 20, 1922 Conroe, Texas Burned 1
28 Mose Bozier May 20, 1922 Alleyton, Texas Hanged 1
29 Gilbert Wilson May 23, 1922 Bryan, Texas Beaten to death 1
30 Jesse Thomas May 26, 1922 Waco, Texas Shot (body burned) 1
31 William Byrd May 28, 1922 Brentwood, Georgia Shot (body burned) 1
32 Robert Collins June 20, 1922 Summit, Mississippi Hanged 1
33 Warren Lewis June 23, 1922 New Dacus, Texas Hanged 1
34 James Harvey July 1, 1922 Lanes Bridge, Georgia Hanged 1
35 Joe Jordan July 1, 1922 Lanes Bridge, Georgia Hanged 1
36 Philip Tankard July 5, 1922 Belhaven, North Carolina Shot 1
37 Joe Pemberton July 7, 1922 Benton, Louisiana Hanged 1
38 Jake "Shake" Davis July 14, 1922 Miller County, Georgia Hanged 1
39 Oscar Mack July 18, 1922 Orange County, Florida Hanged (False report, Oscar Mack survived) 1
40 Will Anderson July 24, 1922 Allentown, Georgia Shot 1
41 John West July 28, 1922 Guernsey, Arkansas Shot 1
42 Gilbert Harris August 1, 1922 Hot Springs, Arkansas Hanged 1
43 John Glover August 1, 1922 Holton, Shot 1
44 Bayner Blackwell August 6, 1922 Swansboro, North Carolina Shot 1
45 John Steelman August 23, 1922 Lambert, Mississippi Burned 1
46 Thomas Rivers August 30, 1922 Bossier Parish, Louisiana Hanged 1
47 F. Watt Daniels (White) August 1922 Mer Rouge, Louisiana Ku-Klux Klan 1
48 Thomas F. Richards (White) August 1922 Mer Rouge, Louisiana Ku-Klux Klan 1
49 Jim Reed Long September 2, 1922 Winder, Georgia Ku-Klux Klan 1
50 O.J. Johnson September 7, 1922 Newton, Texas Hanged 1
51 Jim Johnston September 28, 1922 Sandersville, Georgia Hanged 1
52 Grover C. Everett September 28, 1922 Abilene, Texas Shot 1
53 John Brown October 3, 1922 Montgomery, Alabama Shot 1
54 Ed Hartley (white) October 20, 1922 Camden, Tennessee Shot 1
55 George Hartley (white) October 20, 1922 Camden, Tennessee Shot 1
56 Elias V. Zarate November 11, 1922 Weslaco, Texas Shot 1
57 Cupid Dickson / Cubrit Dixon December 5, 1922 Madison, Florida Shot 1
58 Charles Wright December 8 ,1922 Perry, Florida Burned 1
59 Less Smith December 9, 1922 Morrilton, Arkansas Burned 1
60 George Gay December 11, 1922 Streetman, Texas Hanged 1
61 Arthur Young December 11, 1922 Perry, Florida Hanged 1
Lynching in the United States
List of lynching victims in the United States
Before 1900
1900–1940
After 1940
Multiple victims
General
Anti-lynching movement
Legislation
Defenders of lynching
Memory
Related articles
Categories
Categories: