Claude Neal
Claude Neal was 23 years old, and according to historian James McGovern's account cited in a 2020 WFSU News article, he was a son, brother, husband and father; his nephew Orlando Williams has sought justice and reparations for the family for more than three decades. In October 1934 he was held at the jail in Brewton, Alabama, when a mob took him from the jail and carried him to Marianna, Florida, where he was killed. McGovern's account says he was tortured for hours in the Jackson County woods before he was killed, and a Washington Tribune report says the governor and sheriff knew of the planned lynching a day in advance. Accounts differ on the sequence of the killing and display, and the names of the men in the mob have never been publicly released.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched (disputed). Accounts say a mob took Claude Neal from the Brewton, Alabama jail and lynched him near Marianna, Florida, in October 1934; the NAACP and the Savannah Tribune say the lynching was a federal matter and call for a Department of Justice investigation, while the Nation and Oswald Garrison Villard say officers did not stop the mob.
Reported by: Savannah Tribune, citing NAACP account (advocates); NAACP (advocates); Associated Press (reporters); Oswald Garrison Villard, quoted in the Nation (advocates); historian James McGovern (reporters).
Sources (8)
- The Daily Alaska Empire, October 27, 1934, page 7
- Evening Star, October 27, 1934, page 4
- The Washington Tribune, November 3, 1934, page 1
- The Gary American, January 11, 1935, page 6
- The Omaha Guide, January 12, 1935, page 3
- The Omaha Guide, January 9, 1937, page 2
- The Savannah Tribune, March 30, 1939, page 1
- Revisiting Claude Neal Lynching Brings Opportunity For Racial Healing In Jackson County