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."
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