On May 4, 1900, three miles from Geneva, Alabama unknown hands took an unknown man from the sheriff’s deputies road and to the woods and hung him.
A common story in Alabama where over 300 lynchings took place in the Jim Crow era. Except there was no real reason for this murder victim to be unknown as he had appeared before a county magistrate to face charges that he had assaulted a 13-year-old girl. Also while it is possible the papers didn’t report the girl’s identity because she was a minor, that wasn’t the usual standard of the day.
The unknown negro supposedly pled guilty to the assault to the county magistrate but there was no record of a formal sentencing which was standard for one who accepted his guilt.
The conclusion is that a reported 20-year-old male Negro, described as having “ginger skin” and no shoes was brutally murdered by a group of riders who took him from armed law enforcement, he was unknown, his murderers unknown, and his reported victim unknown.
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