Mob Hangs 3 in Duluth.
Type of event: Lynchings
Location: Duluth; St. Louis County; Minnesota; United States
Citation:
Chicago Daily Tribune, June 16, 1920, page 1.
“Mob Hangs 3 in Duluth”
Image text
Mob Hangs 3 In
Duluth
5,000 Persons Lynch Negroes to
Avenge Girl
Storm Jail and Rout Police
Force.
BULLETIN
St. Paul, Minn., June 16, 2 a.m. –Two companies of
Minnesota National guardsmen left here at 1:30 a.m. today for Duluth under
instructions from the state adjutant general who acted on 2 request of Sheriff
McGee of Duluth. They were equipped for riot
duty.
Duluth., Minn., June 16, 2 a. m.– A mob of
5,000 persons stormed police headquarters here last night took possession of six
Negroes held in connection with an attack on a white girl yesterday, and lynched
three of them.
The other three were
“acquitted” at a “trial” held by the mob leaders in the
police station, and were turned back to the police. After the lynching was
over, further trouble was not anticipated although national guard troops had
been ordered here from Fort Snelling By State Adit. Gen. Rhinow, and a company
of local guardsmen ordered mobilized by the same authority.
Not a Shot Fired.
The mob did not fire a shot in the attack on the police
station. Bricks and sticks and stones were the only weapons used, until, in the
final stages of the fight, they got hold of firehose from the police and firemen
who were trying to break up the demonstration and turned streams of water on the
officers.
Eight policemen and a newspaper reporter
suffered minor injuries in the attack on the police station. They were hit by
bricks or other missles, or were swept off their feet and severely bumped in the
water fight.
It was reported that three or four trucks
and automobiles, loaded with members of the mob, had started at midnight toward
Virginia, where it was said four other Negroes had been arrested in connection
with the same case.
Other Negroes Diverted.
The Negroes were roustabouts with a circus that appeared here
yesterday and the attack on the 17year old white girl took place on the circus
grounds last night. The circus was in Virginia yesterday, and it was said eight
Negroes were arrested there, but only four held.
One
report was that the Virginia authorities and John Murphy Duluth’s chief of
police had started back to Duluth with these four suspects before the mob
trouble started here but it was understood that the party had been diverted to
another city.
The Negroes hanged were Isaac McGhie,
Elmer Jackson, and Nate Green all about 22 years old. They were lynched in the
order named at 11:30 p. m., 11:38 p. m., and 11:45 p. m., respectively. All
professed their innocence.
Mob Gets Busy Early.
First indication the downtown district received of the
trouble brewing came at 7 o’clock last evening when trucks loaded with men
dashed up and down the principal streets, the men calling for “volunteers
to avenge the wrong done the white girl.
There was
ready response, and as the mob recruiters met with no marked opposition from the
police, the crowd soon numbered 5,000. Then the storming of the jail
began.
The police station is located just west of the
city hall, between Superior street and Michigan street, with a front entrance on
the former street which is Duluth’s main business thoroughfare, and rear
basement entrance on Michigan.
Crowd Currounds Jail.
On both streets the mob gathered, surging toward both front
rear entrances simultaneously. Word of its coming had reached the police, and
preparations had been made to put up a fight with streams of water from fire
hose.
The first concerted attack was made on the rear
entrance. Near the building was a pile of bricks, used on construction job, and
of this the mob took quick advantage. Bricks were sent flying through windows
and against the rear door which finally gave in.
Officers Use Fire Hose.
This let the mob into the basement, the police garage, and as
it started up the stairs to the first floor Strong spurts of water washed its
members back.
Bricks again were brought into play and
as the battle waged at the rear of the building other members of the mob
obtained a section of firehouse, made a connection at a hydrant and started an
attack on the front entrance.
Here, too, the police
were prepared to fight back the mob with water, and in the water duel that
ensued, neither side had a marked advantage until the mob managed to cut the
police hose. This caused a mometary retreat by the police, and the mob began
battering down the front door.
Police Finally Give Up.
After entrance had been forced from the front the police
offered no further resistance, realizing, they said, that attemps to use
firearms would turn the disturbance into a riot of even more serious
proportions, and probably cause extensive life
loss.
Within the police station the mob faced two
heavy steel doors, barring the way to the prisoners’ cells. With a large
timber, the steel doors were battered down after an hour’s attack. It
took only a few minutes to force open the cages and gain possession of the Negro
suspects.
The “Trial” Is Held.
On the second floor of the station a “trial” was
held. The three Negroes declared guilty were taken from the building to Second
avenue east and First street, about one and a half blocks from the police
station.
McGhie was the first to feel the noose. He
cried for mercy, declaring be was innocent. Two Catholic priests called upon
the crowd to let the law take its course, but their pleas went
unheeded.
One priest, Father F. J. Howard climbed
fifteen feet up an electric light pole and again pleaded with the mob to turn
the Negroes over to courts of law. He was met by hoots and cries of
“Remember the girl–lynch them!”
Hanged on Third Attempt.
Twice McGhie was jerked into the air to the shouts of the
mom, and each time the rope broke, dropping him to the ground. “God be
with them, I am not the right man,” was his last cry as on the third trial
he went to his death.
A similar fate quickly was meted
to Jackson and Green, who likewise protested their innocence and pleaded for
mercy. There was no demonstration after each body soared into the air, and riot
attempt was made to mutilate the bodies in any way.
It
was declared tonight that inability of the police to cope with the situation was
due in part to a stortage of men on the force, which totals about eighty
according to available records.
When the mob stormed
the police headquarters, it was said about thirty policemen were on duty there
and it was early realized that efforts to stop the mob at that stage of the
trouble would have been “like pouring old on fire,” as one patrolmen
put it.
No Further Trouble Feared.
Although many members of the mob were still in the vicinity of police headquarters at an early hour this morning the authorities do not believe there will be any further trouble, as the “work” of the avengers is completed. It is believed that when the troops now on their way, reach here, they will arrive only to turn around and go back.