Dave Hunt
Dave Hunt, a Black man in his mid-twenties, was held in the jail at Wise, Virginia. Early on Sunday, November 14, 1920, a mob took him from the jail and hanged him from a bridge near Kent Junction. According to the Big Stone Gap Post, the sheriff and prosecuting attorney pleaded with the mob to let the law take its course, but the sheriff refused to hand over the keys, saying he had thrown them away, and the mob broke the lock with a sledgehammer. Other accounts put the crowd at about 75 men rather than 300, and one says his body was later shot and found by the roadside near Blackwood.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched. According to the Associated Press, a mob of about 75 men took Dave Hunt from the Wise, Virginia, jail and hanged him from a bridge near Kent Junction.
Reported by: Associated Press (reporters).