preview

Grant County Sheriff Research Paper

Better Essays

There were too many to count. What was only a few dozen hours earlier, became hundreds – no thousands. The Grant County sheriff was grossly outnumbered. As he stood on the porch leading to the jail, a few steps from the door to his home, the mob shuffled forward menacingly. The glare of the porch lamp likely darkened their faces, contrasting the men of the law with the people of the land. The on-lookers who watched from afar seemed to be closer every second. He presumably considered what to do as the mob grew before his eyes. What did he fail to account for? Had he made any mistakes? He had arrested the suspects of the shooting almost immediately after it happened. The prosecutor promised anyone who asked him that these boys would end up in …show more content…

People resumed their business as if nothing happened. Aside from a possible rebellion in the south side of town by black residents who were outraged by the lynching, many people continued their lives without inquiries or dissent regarding that night. Even the police officers who were present did not bother trying to learn more about the situation. In depositions conducted by the county prosecutor, none of the officers who protected the jail that night made any attempts to discover who was in the mob or how the uprising occurred. It was as if they understood everything they needed to …show more content…

It illuminated a shooting victim who became a martyr for divisive race relations. It turned a victim of sexual assault into a symbol that called for justice. It made an example of two men by allowing them hang through the night of August 7th, 1930. Thanks to Hall’s premise regarding lynchings, scholars can better contextualize lynchings in America as neither random occurrences nor as completely premeditated events, but specific, targeted events coordinated by white communities to convey appropriate notions of gender and race. Many of the bystanders and rioters who were present that night resumed their lives as they did before. They were able to do so because the Marion lynching was not an outlier. It was not a flagrant response to an egregious crime. It was exactly what people expected each other to do, and for many, that night confirmed what they believed about justice, sexual assault, and interracial crime. Once an unspoken rule, the lynching made these things clear for everyone who lived in Marion. The law enforcement can only promise justice. The mob is always available to make it

Get Access