1919 Lynching in Montgomery, Alabama

In August or September of 1919 Miles Phifer and Robert Crosky were arrested over allegations they assaulted two white women in separate incidents in Montgomery, Alabama. The Gadsden Daily Times-News reported that the two had confessed to the assaults.[1] A mob had formed and a concerned citizen notified Alabama's Governor Thomas Kilby that there might be a lynching.[2] Kilby ordered the two to be transferred to the relative safety of prison in Wetumpka, Alabama.[2] On September 29, 1919, the sheriff and his deputies were transporting Phifer and Crosky when they were stopped by a white mob, of about 25 masked men.[3] The deputies stood by as the men pulled the two out of the car. They were taken into the wilderness 5 miles (8.0 km) out of Montgomery, Alabama and told to run. As Phifer and Crosky sprinted away from the mob they were gunned down. Croskey was instantly killed, but Phifer lived for a few hours.[2] [4] Phifer and Crosky were discharged soldiers and Phifer was still in his uniform when he was killed.[5] [1]

On 2 AM on September 30, 1919, a day after the lynching of Phifer and Crosky, John Temple was lynched in a hospital for allegedly fatally wounding Policeman Barbaree.[5][6] The two events were not linked.[5]

These lynchings were one of several incidents of civil unrest that are now known as the American Red Summer of 1919. Attacks on black communities and white oppression spread to more than three dozen cities and counties. In most cases, white mobs attacked African American neighborhoods. In some cases, black community groups resisted the attacks, especially in Chicago and Washington, D.C. Most deaths occurred in rural areas during events like the Elaine race riot in Arkansas, where an estimated 100 to 240 blacks and 5 whites were killed. Other major events of Red Summer were the Chicago race riot and Washington D.C. Race Riot, which caused 38 and 39 deaths, respectively. Both riots had many more non-fatal injuries and extensive property damage reaching up into the millions of dollars.[7]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to 1919 Lynching in Montgomery, Alabama.

• African American veterans lynched after WWI
• Washington race riot of 1919
• Mass racial violence in the United States
• List of incidents of civil unrest in the United States

Notes

References

• The Bridgeport Times and Evening Farmer (September 30, 1919). "Negro Shot To Death By Mob". The Bridgeport Times and Evening Farmer. Bridgeport, Fairfield, Connecticut: Farmer Pub. Co. pp. 1–16. ISSN 2381-0068. OCLC 25612160. Retrieved September 8, 2019.
• Evening Capital News (September 30, 1919). "Lynch Blacks In The South Who Attacked White Women". Evening Capital News. Boise, Idaho. ISSN 2471-7754. OCLC 18530685. Retrieved September 8, 2019.
• The Gadsden Daily Times-News (2019). "Three Negroes Are Lynched in Montgomery". The Gadsden Daily Times-News. Gadsden, Alabama: Times-News Print. Co. OCLC 12760995. Retrieved September 11, 2019.
• The Guardian (May 25, 2018). "America's first memorial to victims of lynching opens in Alabama – live updates". The Guardian. Retrieved September 8, 2019.
• The New York Times (October 5, 1919). "For Action on Race Riot Peril". The New York Times. New York, NY: Adolph Ochs. ISSN 1553-8095. OCLC 1645522. Retrieved July 5, 2019.
• Williams, Chad Louis (2010). Torchbearers of Democracy: African American Soldiers in the World War I Era. University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 9780807833940. - Total pages: 452