Depending on the definition of "lynching" used, between 26 — 28 people were lynched in Ohio, including both Black and White victims. The Tuskegee Institute estimated 10 Whites and 16 Blacks were lynched between 1882 and 1968.[1] The Equal Justice Initiative lists 15 instances of racial terror lynchings in Ohio from 1877 to 1950.[2]
Though most common in the American South, terror lynchings occurred in many other states. Ohio is eighth in the number of racial terror lynchings outside the South, and twentieth overall including the South.[3]
Ohioan Benjamin Harrison in May of 1892 was the first US president to call for anti-lynching legislation.[4] Ohio legislators and activists, including Harry Clay Smith and Albion W. Tourgee, responded with the Smith Act, which was "intended to discourage all forms of mob violence by allowing victims or their families to obtain up to $5000 in financial compensation from the county where the crime occurred."[4] It was the strongest anti-lynching in the United States at the time.[4] The Smith Act became a model for similar legislation enacted in other states.[4]
Victim name | Year | Date | Victim race | Location | County | Accused crime |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Unknown drover[4] | Early 1800s | White?[4] | Kirkersville | Licking | Theft | |
Unknown[4] | 1802 | Black | Salt Lick Town | Jackson | ||
Boles, William[5] | 1891 | April 10 | Kenton | Hardin | Murder | |
Corbin, Henry[5] | 1892 | January 14 | Oxford | Butler | Murder | |
Lytle, James[5] | 1892 | February 30[5] (yes, that's what the source says) | Findlay | Hancock | Murder | |
Terry, Bill | 1856 | November 25[4] | Black | Manchester | Adams | Rape[4] |
Unknown negro[5] | 1892 | April 1 | Black | Millersburg | Holmes | Unknown cause |
Parker, Roscoe[5] | 1894 | January 12 | West Union | Adams | Murder | |
Neville, Seymour[5] | 1894 | April 15 | Rushsylvania | Logan | Rape | |
Weatheroff, Nelson[5] | 1895 | May 31 | Logan | Hocking | Attempted rape | |
Anderson, Noah[5] | 1895 | August 21 | New Richmond | Clermont | Murder | |
Mitchell, Charles[5] | 1897 | June 4 | Urbana | Champaign | Rape | |
Dixon, Richard[5] | 1904 | March 7 | Springfield | Clark | Rape | |
Etherington, Carl[5] | 1910 | July 8 | Newark | Licking | Murder | |
Unnamed negro[5] | 1911 | June 27 | Black | Cleveland | Cuyahoga | Murder |
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