Lynchings in Florida

 

Aug. 2, 1910: Alexandria (Va.) Gazette. The Times, Aug. 4, 1910. Aug. 5, 1910: Mahoning (Ohio) Dispatch. Aug. 9, 1910: Bisbee (Ariz.) Daily Review.

Aug. 2-9, 1910: It’s a bit difficult to track down the original story about Bessie Morrison (possibly Bessie Mae Morrison), who was evidently killed in Florida. In trying to find further information, I stumbled across a book titled “100 Years of Lynchings,” which seems to be a compilation of news stories. According to this transcription from the Holmes County (Fla.) Advertiser, three blacks were lynched but there were no further hangings, despite news stories to the contrary.

Comments

[T]

Bessie is my cousin and all of this story is true.
It was a brutal murder,her body was dumped in a lake a dead wood stacked on top of her to conceal her body.

[Jonathan Harrison]

The story was in the New York Times on July 31st 1910, but it misidentified the city as Boniface rather than Bonifay:

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9A01E7DA1239E433A25752C3A9619C946196D6CF&scp=41&sq=florida+lynched&st=p

Other Florida lynchings reported in the NYT:

http://holocaustcontroversies.blogspot.com/2011/02/lynchings-in-florida-1881-1935.html