Monday, June 10, 2024

False Reports Lead To Brutal Death Of A Black Man In Tennessee

 


Knoxville, TN Jun 10, 1894, rumors can kill, and in James Perry’s case it was a terrible and terrifying death. It was reported that Mr. Perry, a Negro, was a carrier of smallpox and had introduced it to the city of Knoxville. The strange thing is that there was no smallpox outbreak in the town.

James Perry was killed by fear and hate. Fear of the dreaded disease and of it spreading, hate of Black people. Perry was a known regional gambler and occasional railroad worker. He had been in jail in Knoxville from November 1893 until the first week in February. He apparently fell sick when he returned to a cabin on Cherry Creek northeast of the city. This cabin is part of Mr. Perry’s problem because it was close to where the creek entered the Tennessee River, where the town got its water.

Reports quickly spread and soon officials had a doctor go and examine Perry. On February 7th a doctor and the head of public works visited Perry and while he was sick the doctor believed it was the result of chickenpox combined with syphilis which Perry was known to have.

After the visit, it was reported that the doctor didn’t diagnose Perry with smallpox and was certain that there was no disease to worry about because Perry had been in jail for four months. No one else, prisoner or sheriff’s deputies had gotten sick.

Still, rumors continued to spread even as the public works department started vaccines for anyone who couldn’t afford it and there were no other reported cases of smallpox.

By March 20th the rumors of an outbreak of Smallpox dissipated since there were no cases in and around Knoxville. However, Perry still seemed to be sick.,

Months passed and June arrived, and Perry had gotten better but it was noticed he seemed to be scarred with areas of his skin looking like he had been burned. For a doctor, this might have been proof of the syphilis diagnosis but to the people of Knoxville, it was proof that the scare they received in winter was real, although there were never any other cases.

On the night of June 10, Perry’s cabin was surrounded and set on fire by a white mob. They also shot the cabin up to make sure Perry could not escape. The cabin burned to the ground and a body was found by the sheriff a few days later when the fire had cooled.

No one came forward to put out the fire and no one was ever charged with killing Perry he was killed by unknown hands. A small press release was sent out to papers all around the county and was published as far north as Buffalo, NY, and as far west as Tulsa, OK and it simply said that "a Negro, James Perry, was killed near police headquarters for introducing Smallpox into Tennessee."




No comments:

Post a Comment