Mob Lynches Black Woman For Protecting Herself From A White Man

 

Wagoner County, Oklahoma, March 31, 1914 — Overnight, another Black child was murdered by persons unknown for the terrible crime of defending herself.

Marie Scott, a 17-year-old Black girl, stabbed a young White man, Lemuel Peace, in the heart. The young man was part of a group of young White men who entered “The Bottoms” or the “Negro Section” of town at 12:30 am. Why these young White men were in that section of town is left unstated in most news stories. The Princton of Mercer County in Missouri, though, reported that the boys had been dancing at a juke in that part of town.

At the time of his death, no one cared why these White boys or men were in the Bottoms. They cared that he was dead and that his companions had helped take Marie Scott into the custody of the sheriff. The Peace family is one of the more prominent families in Mercer County.

Marie Scott was brought to jail late in the morning on Monday. She was going to be charged with the young man’s murder. The mob decided that it wasn’t necessary. About 1:00 in the morning on Tuesday, Jailer P.J. Turner, a man in his sixties it was reported, heard a knock on the jail door and when he went to investigate he was met by a mob of about 20 men all armed.

The mob ordered Turner to sit in the corner of a cell while they pulled Marie Scott from the jail. Turner later said that she screamed and fought as they dragged her off. They didn’t go far as about two blocks away they found a telegraph pole and threw a rope over it and pulled her up.

About two hours later, the sheriff found her body swinging from the pole. He cut her down, and the coroner came to pick up the body. He held an inquest and reported that he found a gunshot wound to her head.

It was reported that there was to be an investigation, but this was the Jim Crow era, and even though Oklahoma wasn’t in the deep south, White mobs were not subjected to any consequences. In this case, because Scott apparently was a stranger who stabbed a well-known young White man, there was no justice to be found.