Tom Johnson
Tom Johnson, a Black man, was held in the jail at Hattiesburg, Mississippi, in late July 1895. According to newspaper reports, a mob of about a hundred men took him from the jail on a Wednesday night, and he got away before being recaptured the next day. The reports say the mob then took him into the country, where he was shot before a large crowd and his body was riddled with buckshot. One Birmingham paper reported that the sheriff refused to give up the keys, and that the mob tore down the yard walls and forced openings into the jail to reach his cell, where it said he was shot three times. The accounts differ on where he was shot, and they are all contemporary newspaper reports.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched
Reported by: Daily States newspaper correspondent reporting from Hattiesburg (reporters).