Bailey Dowdy
Bailey Dowdy was a Black man held in the Columbia, South Carolina jail awaiting trial when a mob of about seventy horsemen came for the prisoners early in the morning of April 5, 1887. According to The Evening Telegram, the sheriff refused the mob's demand for the keys, and men with axes then broke through the jail's doors and grating. Dowdy and four other men were taken to a wood outside town and hanged from tree limbs. The paper reported that no one in the mob was recognized and that no one would be sought.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched. The Evening Telegram reports that a mob of about seventy horsemen took Bailey Dowdy from the Columbia jail and hanged him from a tree after breaking through the jail's doors and grating.
Reported by: The Evening Telegram (reporters).