Thad Fowlkes
Thaddeus Fowlkes, a Black man, was held in the Charlotte County jail in Virginia in late 1890. On December 2, while he was being taken back to the jail from the Charlotte Court House, a group of men intercepted the sheriff on the road and took him. According to a letter from J. H. Turner published in the Richmond Planet, about one hundred men hanged him from a tree and shot him. Another account gives his name as Thad Fowlkes and says the men took him from the guard, but neither account says whether the sheriff or guard resisted or handed him over.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched. A mob intercepted the sheriff on the road back from court and lynched him, according to a report; a reader's letter to the Richmond Planet describes him being cut open, hanged and shot after men took him from the guard.
Reported by: Richmond Planet letter by J. H. Turner (reporters).