Henry Choate
Henry Choate, an 18-year-old Black man, was held in the jail in Columbia, Tennessee, on November 11, 1927. A mob of about 850 men, many of them armed, broke into the jail, battered the door with sledgehammers, took him from his cell, and hanged him from a second-story window of the courthouse. Sheriff L. C. Witty said he unlocked the cell door after the mob rushed in and the main door was battered down. The Rev. J. R. Parsons said the door was unlocked from the inside, and that dispute about how the jail was opened remains unresolved.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched (disputed). Sheriff L. C. Witty says he unlocked the cell door after the mob broke in, while the Rev. J. R. Parsons says the door was unlocked from the inside.
Reported by: Sheriff L. C. Witty (the agency that held him); Rev. J. R. Parsons.