Henry Pope
Henry Pope, a Black man, was held in the Summerville jail in Chattooga County, Georgia. Press reports said he had received several reprieves from the governor, the latest the Saturday before his death. According to The Morning News, about fifty masked men took him from the jail in the early hours of May 2, 1888, and hanged him from the banisters of the courthouse stairs, and the sheriff, guarded by armed men, gave up the keys. Other accounts, citing a dispatch from Atlanta, say a mob took him from the jail on the night of April 30 and hanged him, and they differ on how the mob got in.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched. Sheriff Worsham, as reported by the newspaper, said a mob of about fifty masked men demanded the keys, took Henry Pope from the Summerville jail and hanged him from the courthouse stairs banisters.
Reported by: Sheriff Worsham, as reported by the newspaper (the agency that held him); newspaper dispatch datelined Atlanta (reporters).