Edmund Bell
Edmund Bell, a Black man, was in the charge of three constables at Selma, Alabama, in early August 1904, when a masked mob of about three hundred people took him from them on the road toward jail after a preliminary examination at Sardis. According to newspaper accounts, the mob hanged him from a tree and riddled his body with bullets. The Greene County Herald reported that the sheriff went to the scene with a posse. The three constables were remanded to jail without bail on first-degree murder charges to await a grand jury. Accounts differ on the exact date of the killing.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched. Newspaper accounts say a mob took Edmund Bell from three constables in Selma, Alabama, in August 1904 and lynched him.
Reported by: The Montgomery Advertiser, Selma correspondent (reporters); Selma news dispatch (reporters); Associated Press (reporters); Greene County Herald (reporters); an unnamed newspaper report.
News reports (7)
- The Savannah Morning News, August 12, 1904, page 1
- Greene County Herald, August 12, 1904, page 1
- The Times Dispatch, August 12, 1904, page 1
- The Brandon News, August 18, 1904, page 6
- Greene County Herald, August 19, 1904, page 1
- The Montgomery Advertiser, August 21, 1904, page 1
- The Greenville Times, August 27, 1904, page 3