Thomas Smith
Thomas Smith, a Black man, was held in the Roanoke city jail in September 1893. According to the Crittenden Press, a mob attacked the jail on September 20 seeking him, and officers moved him to another place to keep him safe. The paper reported that on the morning of September 21 the mob found where he had been hidden, killed him and burned his body on the riverbank before a crowd it estimated at more than 1,000. The Highland Recorder reported that a crowd forced past a picket line at the jail and that soldiers fired on the crowd, and a special grand jury later indicted men for lynching him, saying he should never have been taken out of the jail.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched (neglect alleged). A special grand jury said Smith should never have been taken out of the city jail, where a mob seized him and killed him.
Reported by: special grand jury; Crittenden Press, citing a Roanoke, Va. dispatch (reporters); a newspaper account of the jail riot.