Austin Callaway
Austin Callaway, an 18-year-old Black youth, was held in the LaGrange jail in Troup County, Georgia, when a group of white men took him from his cell in September 1940. Police Chief J. E. Matthews said the men forced acting jailer S. J. Willis at gunpoint to hand over the keys and open the cell. Callaway was later found on Liberty Hill road and taken to a local hospital, where he died shortly afterward from gunshot wounds. Officers, including the Troup County sheriff, had few clues to the identities of the men.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched. Police Chief J. E. Matthews said a group of white men forced acting jailer S. J. Willis at gunpoint to hand over the keys and open the cell before fatally shooting Austin Callaway.
Reported by: Police Chief J. E. Matthews (the agency that held him). The only account of how this person died comes from the agency that held him.