Lewis Harris
Lewis Harris, also printed as Lewie, was a Black man held in the jail at Belair, Maryland, in March 1900. Newspaper accounts say a masked mob forced the jail door on the night of March 26 or early on March 27, took him from his cell and killed him. The sheriff and deputies struggled with the crowd and exchanged gunfire, and two men were wounded in the fighting, though one account says the sheriff and his deputy were overpowered. The mob hanged him from a tree or limb near the jail, and one account says that when the limb broke and he fell, he was hoisted up and hanged again and shot.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched. A masked mob broke into the Belair jail, took the man from his cell and hanged him, after the sheriff and deputies fought to protect him.
Reported by: Belair jail sheriff and deputies (the agency that held him); news reports of the 1900 Belair, Maryland lynching (reporters).