Ed Lang
Ed Lang, a 21-year-old Black cotton picker near Rice, Texas, was held in the city jail to await the sheriff from Corsicana. On Saturday afternoon, August 19, 1916, according to The Waxahachie Daily Light, about 200 farmers broke down the jail doors, dragged him to a telephone pole and hanged him, making no attempt to conceal their identities. A second account, from the Pine Bluff Daily Graphic, says he had been taken from a sheriff's posse by a mob in Rice on the same day. The accounts differ on whether he was in the jail or with a posse when the mob reached him, and whether officers tried to stop it.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched. A mob of about 200 farmers broke into the city jail in Rice, Texas, dragged Ed Lang to a telephone pole and hanged him, according to the newspaper account.
Reported by: news reports.