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Died in jail or a lockup

Samuel Johnson

65 years old · died March 6, 1886 · Monmouth County Correctional Institution, Monmouth County, New Jersey

Samuel Johnson, a Black man who had lived in Eatontown, New Jersey, most of his life, was well known there and had once been a successful jockey; accounts say he had a wife and children. In March 1886 he was held in the small brick jail in Eatontown. In the early hours of March 6, 1886, a mob broke into the jail, beat him, and hanged him from the iron grating over the door, and a coroner later found that he died of strangulation. The Equal Justice Initiative says a constable had ignored Johnson's fears about the mob, and that a coroner's inquest named six participants whom the jury did not act on, so no one was held accountable. Newspapers differ on his age, giving it as between 58 and 70, and on whether the killing happened on the night of March 5 or early on March 6.

Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched. A coroner's jury found Samuel Johnson was willfully murdered by persons unknown, beaten with clubs and hanged from the jail door grating; a Black man in the Eatontown, New Jersey jail, he was taken by a mob, and the article does not say whether jail staff resisted or handed over the keys.

Reported by: coroner's jury (medical examiner or coroner); Equal Justice Initiative (lynching marker text) (advocates); The Associated Press (reporters).

Sources (18)

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