George Johnson, Squire Taylor, and Charles Davis, were three Black men who were killed in a spectacle lynching in 1871 in Charlestown, Indiana. They were memorialized in 2022.
Lynching
A white mob lynched George Johnson, Squire Taylor, and Charles Davis, all Black men, in Charlestown, Clark County, Indiana, in 1871. The three men were accused of killing the family of Cyprus Park, a farmer who lived near Henryville, Indiana. A neighbor near the Parks family believed that he was also a target but managed to keep the assailants out of his home. The neighbor believed that the assailants were white. Even so, George Johnson, a Black man, was arrested on suspicion of committing the murders and was tortured until he confessed. He also gave out the names of two other Black men, Squire Taylor, and Charles Davis. These men were then arrested. The trial followed quite quickly. The grand jury declared the men not guilty based on the lack of evidence, but the men remained in custody and were sent to a Charlestown jail.
Soon after arrival, a white mob gathered and took the three men from the jail. The mob then hanged all three men and tortured Squire Taylor before he was killed. The guilt of the men in question was viewed as highly dubious by some at the time. Information about this spectacle lynching was released only a year later in a pamphlet titled, “Murder and Mob Law in Indiana,” by James Hiatt. The author decried the lack of proof of the Black men's guilt and acknowledged the overwhelming evidence of their innocence. No one was charged or arrested for the murder of these men even though the family came forward with names of suspects and filed a law suit against the sheriff involved. The actions of the white mob led the Indiana governor at the time, Conrad Baker, to call for the suppression of illegal organizations. Referring to the Enforcement Act of 1870, adopted during Reconstruction, Baker proposed that the U.S. Federal government could be asked to intervene to stop the actions of mobs that terrorized Black people. The Indiana government, however, did not follow through on that proposal and mob violence continued.
Information about the murdered men is not available in the public historical record otherwise. In Indiana, between 1877 and 1950, there were at least eighteen Black people lynched.
Memorialization
On the 16th of February, 2022, the Indiana Senate officially recognized the innocence of George Johnson, Squire Taylor, and Charles Davis in Senate Resolution 36. Senator Chris Garten has since expressed interest in installing a historical marker to commemorate the event, although one has yet to be created.
References
- ^ Stepro, Diane (March 19, 2021). "The 1871 Lynching of Three Black Men in Clark County". Discover Indiana. Archived from the original on March 22, 2022. Retrieved April 18, 2022.
- Hiatt, James M. (1872). Murder and mob law in Indiana!: The slaughter of the Park family. Indianapolis Printing and Publishing House.
- Thornbrough, Emma Lou (1965). Indiana in the Civil War Era, 1850-1880. Indiana Historical Society. ISBN 978-0-87195-050-5.
- "Explore The Map | Lynching In America: Indiana". Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror. Equal Justice Initiative. Archived from the original on March 3, 2022. Retrieved 2022-05-03.
- McAfee, Brooke. "Indiana Senate resolution recognizes victims of 1871 lynching in Charlestown". News and Tribune. Archived from the original on March 19, 2022. Retrieved 2022-04-20.
- Yoder, Breaux, Melton, Pol, Ford J.D. Indiana Senate Resolution No. 36. Indiana General Assembly. http://iga.in.gov/legislative/2022/resolutions/senate/simple/36