Tom McLain
Tom McLain was a Black man held in the jail at Coffeeville, Mississippi. On the night of July 31, 1868, a large party of masked horsemen took him and another man from the jail, carried them a short distance from town, and hanged them, according to dispatches from Memphis and Grenada published in August 1868. The jailer and sheriff resisted until they were overpowered, the dispatches say. The Athens Post reported that some members of the mob said they were determined to suffer no consequences for their actions.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched. A Memphis dispatch reports that a masked mob took Tom McLain from the Coffeeville, Mississippi jail, where the jailer and sheriff resisted until overpowered, and hanged him.
Reported by: Memphis dispatch reprinted in The Athens Post (reporters).