John Hays
John Hays was one of six Black men held in the custody of officers near Millington, Tennessee, on the night of August 31, 1894, when they were being taken by wagon toward the Memphis county jail. An armed mob of about fifty men stopped the wagon, took the men from the officers and shot them while they were shackled. One account says the men were hanged rather than shot, and the accounts differ on whether the officers resisted or gave the men up. A coroner's inquest returned a verdict of death at the hands of unknown parties, and a grand jury was ordered to investigate.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched. A mob of about fifty armed men stopped the wagon carrying the shackled prisoners, took them from the officers and shot them, and an inquest jury found they died at the hands of persons unknown.
Reported by: inquest jury; Deputy Sheriff Richardson and detectives W. S. Richardson and A. T. Atkinson (the agency that held him).