Edward Hamilton
Edward Hamilton, a Black man, was held in the parish jail in Shreveport, Louisiana. On the afternoon of May 12, 1914, a mob took him from the jail and hanged him from a telephone pole, according to newspaper accounts that put the crowd at anywhere from about 100 to around a thousand people. Accounts differ on how the mob got in, with some describing steel saws and a broken steel cell door. Five companies of militia had been ordered to protect the jail, and the sheriff had telegraphed the governor for troops, but the mob reached the jail before the soldiers arrived.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched. A mob took Ed Hamilton from the Shreveport parish jail and hanged him from a telephone pole in May 1914, after the sheriff had asked the governor for troops that had not yet arrived.
Reported by: news reports.