William Kirkland
Willie Kirkland, a 20-year-old Black man, was being held in the Thomasville jail in Georgia in September 1930. Sheriff Gordon K. Davis and several deputies were moving him to a nearby town for safekeeping when a crowd of 50 to 75 men seized him. The men hanged him from a tree in Magnolia Gardens, then dragged his body behind a truck through the city and left it on the courthouse lawn. Another account says the mob also riddled his body with bullets.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched. A mob of 50 to 75 men seized Willie Kirkland from sheriff's deputies who were moving him for safekeeping, hanged him from a tree, and dragged his body through the city.
Reported by: Sheriff Gordon K. Davis and deputies (the agency that held him); news reports.
Custody: Serving a sentence.