Homer Smith
Homer Smith, a Black man, was held in the Calhoun County jail in Morgan, Georgia, in August 1896 after a commitment hearing. According to a Dawson News dispatch from Leary, a crowd of more than 100 men gathered that evening and demanded the jail keys from the sheriff, overpowering him and his son to get them. The mob took Smith from the jail, hanged him from a limb about three-quarters of a mile from town, and shot him many times, and the sheriff was reported badly bruised in the struggle. The account is the newspaper's, and no source in this record gives a fuller account of his life or of whether the sheriff could have done more to stop the mob.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched. A Dawson News dispatch from Leary reports that a mob of more than 100 men took the man from the Calhoun County jail, hanged him from a limb and shot him repeatedly.
Reported by: Dawson News dispatch from Leary (reporters).