Henry James
Henry James, a 23-year-old Black man, was held in custody in Little Rock, Arkansas, on May 13, 1892. A news dispatch printed in The Morning News said a mob of about 1,000 armed men demanded entry to the Little Rock penitentiary late that night, and that officials first refused before acknowledging he was there for safekeeping and would be handed to the sheriff the next morning. That account says the mob broke open the gates, took him to a street in the city center and hanged him from a telegraph pole. The Daily Public Ledger reported instead that the mob overpowered the jailer at a Little Rock jail and took him from it, and the two accounts differ on where he was held and how the mob got in.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched. A news dispatch printed in The Morning News says a mob of about 1,000 armed men broke into the Little Rock penitentiary, took Henry James from the facility, hanged him from a telegraph pole and shot him.
Reported by: news dispatch from Little Rock, as printed in The Morning News (reporters).