Browse Items (1 total)
- Description is exactly "A series of local newspaper articles chronicling Lauderdale County African-American resident Lewis McClure's (ca. 1870-1940) criminal court cases.
McClure was arrested at various times on charges such as fighting and public intoxication. However on Monday night, August 10, 1903, on the corner of Tennessee and Seminary Streets Lewis McClure was shot in his left side by African-American resident of Smithsonia, in west Lauderdale County, Ed Winston, formerly a waiter at the Alabama Hotel in Florence, who fired a total of three shots, with one hitting McClure. The shooting was the result of a difficulty the two men had had three weeks previous. McClure and Winston had both been involved in the May, 1897 fight at the Florence District School for Negroes on South Court Street which resulted in African-American Dan Rand's being shot and killed while resisting arrest.
The next morning, Winston surrendered to Florence Police; Mayor Walker fined him $10 and court costs for firing a weapon in the city and bound Winston over to the grand jury.
Wednesday night, December 16, 1903 McClure unwittingly got his revenge, when he shot and killed Ed Winston while the two were "scuffling" at Thomas Reynolds' restaurant on Tennessee Street; the Florence Times reported friends of McClure as saying that Winston pulled a knife on McClure. McClure surrendered himself to the police claiming the shooting was accidental. At his trial, conducted from March 22 to March 24, 1904 McClure was represented by local white attorney George P. Jones, while Solicitor WH Sawtelle and Maj. Robert Edward Simpson represented the State. Thursday, March 24, Lewis McClure was found "not guilty" by the jury after an eighteen hour deliberation.
Lewis McClure (ca. 1870-) was one of between 3 and 6 children of Janet/Jeannette McClure (ca. 1832-1912), a washerwoman who by 1900 was widowed; her husband's name is unknown. In 1900 the McClures lived on Alabama Street but by 1910 had moved to South Court Street. By 1900 all but two of her children, Lewis and his brother James Hunter McClure, were deceased.
On Thursday, January 30, 1908 the kitchen of the McClure home on South Court Street caught fire while "Aunt" Janette was asleep sick in the front room; she was relieved to find out, contrary to her belief, that her insurance policy from Weekly & Weeden had just been renewed without her knowledge thus her loss in the fire was covered.
At some point after 1910 Lewis relocated to Chicago, Illinois. His 1930 census enumeration listed him as widowed (we don't know who his wife was yet) and the owner of a boarding house on Indiana Avenue. He died October 4, 1940 at 70 years old and according to his death certificate was buried in the Lincoln Cemetery. His death certificate listed his occupation as "laborer."
"
Sort by:
