Will Brown
According to a 2021 historical marker, William Brown was a 40-year-old Black laborer held in the Douglas County jail on the fifth floor of the courthouse in Omaha, Nebraska. On September 28, 1919, during racial violence, a mob set the courthouse on fire, took him from the jail, hanged him from a pole, shot him and burned his body, according to the marker and contemporary newspaper accounts. One newspaper says Sheriff Mike Clark and his deputies fought for hours before the sheriff was forced to surrender him around 11 p.m., while another says officers looked on. A Monitor report says officials stated that some officers turned over guns and badges while an investigation of their conduct was underway. The marker says no one was ever held accountable for his death, while a Monitor report says a 1919 grand jury indicted several men in connection with it, and an encyclopedia account says the jury returned only a few minor indictments.
Cause of death, as reported: Killed by another person in custody
Sources (15)
- Omaha Race Riot
- East St. Louis Daily Journal, September 29, 1919, page 2
- The Lake County Times, September 29, 1919, page 1
- The Dawson News, September 30, 1919, page 2
- Rock Island Argus, September 30, 1919, page 1
- The Holly Chieftain, October 2, 1919, page 9
- The Rathdrum Tribune, October 3, 1919, page 4
- The Chicago Whip, October 4, 1919, page 12
- The Beatrice Daily Express, October 6, 1919, page 1
- The Hays Free Press, October 9, 1919, page 6
- The Monitor, October 9, 1919, page 3
- The Ordway New Era, October 10, 1919, page 8
- Shoshone Journal, October 10, 1919, page 1
- The Monitor, October 23, 1919, page 1
- Remembering the 1919 lynching of William Brown; historical marker at Douglas Co. Courthouse