Deaths in Custody
Died in jail or a lockup

Adolphus Ross

died March 19, 1921 · Yalobusha County, Mississippi

Adolphus Ross, a Black man, was being held in the jail at Water Valley, Mississippi. Reports from March 20, 1921 say that early on March 19, a mob of about fifty men overpowered the sheriff and broke into the jail. The men took Ross from the jail and hanged him from a tree near town. His body, riddled with bullets, was found by the road about four miles from town that morning.

Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched

Reported by: Associated Press (reporters).

News reports (3)