Feb. 11, 1906, Bunkie Richardson was a 28-year-old Black
man who was in jail when a mob wanted blood, some thought he had participated
in the murder of a White woman Sarah Jane Smith in July of 1905 but there was
no evidence of this. The man who confessed to the murder did not mention Bunk
Richardson when he indicated two other men helped him in the crime, also the
confessed murderer had already been executed.
On the night of the original arrests, Etowah County Sheriff
William Chandler had requested the state militia and received them to help
stop a mass lynching and move the prisoners to the Jefferson County Jail. The
mob that was unable to quench their blood lust that night roamed the town and
burned down Black homes and killed another innocent Black man on the city trolly.
The two men convicted Jack Hunter and Vance Gardner never
mentioned anyone Richardson and Hunter said he alone killed Smith. A third man
was convicted but Sheriff Chandler and three local lawyers wrote letters to
Gov. William Jelks, asking him to re-examine Johnson's case. Two lawyers went
so far as to travel to Montgomery to lobby for the man's innocence.
Jelks commuted the third man, Will Johnson, to life in prison.
This again enraged the people of Gadsden who had assembled to view Johnson’s
execution on Dec. 9th, 1905.
At the trial for the men convicted of the murder Richardson
was mentioned as having known one of the killers and was seen on the railroad
tracks in Gadsden where the murder happened.
Thus, Bunk was in jail waiting to appear before a grand jury for
his participation but there was nothing to connect him to the crime. Not even
the papers of the time produced any, they tentatively endorsed the lynching or
at least did not condone it.
On the night Feb 11 30 men stormed the unprepared jail and
demanded Richardson. They overpowered the sheriff and jailer and took
Richardson. They drug him through town beating and kicking him. They took him
to the railroad trestle over the Coosa River and looped a rope around his neck
and threw him off.
When word got out of the lynching Richardson’s cousin Earl
Williams who was a well-known stone mason and business owner gathered his
family and left town, they never returned leaving behind a thriving store and
laundry.
No one was ever charged with the murder of Bunk Richardson or
with the intimidation of his relatives.
Sources:
https://www.al.com/news/anniston-gadsden/2016/12/1906_gadsden_lynching_memorial.html
https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=116817
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