Herbert Simmons: Just Another Georgia Lynching

 

Dec. 29, 1904, the Pike County, Georgia coroner said Herbert Simmons killed J.A. Parks and so the people of the county decided that was sufficient to hang him from a tree and fill him full of bullets, which was the style at the time.

Mr. Parks, a white man, had been brutally murdered and robbed on the evening of Dec. 27^th on his way home. He had been seen in the company of three negros according to newspaper reports. A well-respected man with strong ties to Georgia A & M (Now Georgia Tech) the community reacted with great anger towards Mr. Park's murder. The newspapers of the day do not report how the corner or the men at the inquest decided on Simmons other than he apparently lived not too far from Parks.

The constable of unincorporated Neal Georgia was taking Simmons to the county jail when they were stopped by a white mob Simmons was beaten and then taken and hung from a tree, and the mob in their rage shot him over 100 times as well.

Based on the newspaper reports, or the bias in the reporting, the mob was justified in killing Simmons and no investigation into his murder ever occurred.

Sources:

https://www.newspapers.com/image/71228164/?terms=%22Herbert%20Simmons%22&match=1

https://www.newspapers.com/image/616590091/?terms=%22Herbert%20Simmons%22&match=1