Died in custody
Name not reported
A Black man was one of nine prisoners being taken by Sheriff Riddick and his posse from Cat Island to the Marianna jail in Lee County, Arkansas, in 1891. The Telegraph-Courier reports that an armed band of white men took the group from the officers after a struggle and hanged them from a sycamore tree. The article ties the events to a cotton-picking strike in the county, a framing that comes from the paper's own account. Whether the sheriff or his deputies resisted, gave up the keys, or handed the men over is not stated.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched
Reported by: the newspaper account.