Will Byrd
Will Byrd was a Black man held in the Sheffield jail in Sheffield, Alabama, in November 1918. An Associated Press report said a mob of about 100 men demanded him and the jailer handed him over, while a February 1919 account said the men stormed the building and took him from his cell, and a jailer testified that he saw members of the mob from an upper floor. The men carried him to the bank of the Tennessee River and hanged him, and the AP report said his body was still hanging the following night. In February 1919, a score or more men went on trial in Tuscumbia over the killing, and they have maintained that they are innocent.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched (disputed). A mob took Will Bird from the Sheffield jail and hanged him, and the Associated Press reports that the jail surrendered him when the men demanded him; the men on trial in Tuscumbia say they are innocent.
Reported by: Associated Press (reporters); state prosecutors in the trials of men charged in the lynching.