False Reports of a July 17, 1897 Lynching of Rev. NL Edmondson of St. Paul AME Church, Florence.

Subject

The Law, Crime and Punishment

Description

A series of national newspaper articles reporting on the supposed July 17, 1897 lynching of Rev. NL Edmondson of Florence, Alabama in the wake of the July 16, Anthony "Bull" Williams lynching at West Point, Tennessee and Rev. Edmondson's letter to the editors of several regional papers insisting that he was very much alive and had never harbored a fugitive. Finally, Rev. Edmondson's May 16, 1901 Florence Herald obituary is included.

Lauderdale County had two known, recorded racially motivated lynchings of African-Americans, the first, in April of 1883 of George Ware, and the second, in March of 1907, of Cleveland Hardin.

Anthony "Bull" Williams, a former resident of Florence, in Lauderdale County, Alabama, had been lynched outside West Point, in Lawrence County, Tennessee on Thursday, July 15, 1897 for the alleged rape and murder of a white woman named Renee Williams on Tuesday, July 12.

The details of the lynching, according to the Florence Standard-Journal of Friday, July 16, 1897:

"The negro was captured yesterday, near Pruitton [near the state line in north central Lauderdale County], this county, by a man named Clark. He asked for something to eat at Clark’s, but was refused by Mrs. Clark. He stood around as if he meant mischief, until Mr. Clark came up and captured him.

"After the capture the brute was taken to Iron City and from there to West Point, escorted by 100 armed men. He was met by a body of 300 men at West Point. The negro was put on a fence and asked if he had anything to say, but refused to make any statement. There was no doubt about his being the right man, as his face and neck were scratched, and he admitted that he stole the strap with which the murdered girl was tied, and that he gave a belt to a negro woman. The belt was taken from the young lady.

"The negro was then hurred [sic] on to the scene of the crime, but before arriving there, was knocked down and stamped to death by the infuriated men. The crowd then stepped back and fired several hundred shots into the body, which was completely riddled and his head blown off. The body was then saturated with oil and burned. The sight was a horrible one, but the brute suffered not half as much as he deserved.

"Two members of the crowd were accidentally shot, one in the leg and the other in the neck and arm. Their injuries were painful but not serious."

Yet somehow in the furor over the Williams lynching, another lynching was said to have occurred in its wake. On Saturday, July 17, in an article reporting on three members of the lynch mob having been supposedly wounded by stray bullets, the Louisville, KY Courier-Journal also stated that:

"To-day a posse began searching for a negro preacher who yesterday shielded the negro murderer near Iron City, and there is talk of lynching him if he is caught. "

The Clyde Herald of Clyde, Kansas on July 21, under the heading “additional dispatches” actually purported to provide the name of a heretofore anonymous black pastor:

"A Negro preacher named Edmondson—who had assisted Anthony Williams, the negro murderer who was recently lynched, to escape for a time—was caught by 400 pursuers at Florence, Ala., beaten to death with clubs, his body riddled with bullets and then hanged."

Literally hundreds of newspapers across the US carried a story with this exact or very similar, text from late July, to early-mid August, 1897. Other variations of the story gave Edmondson’s/Edmundson’s (19th c. journalists were often “hooked on phonics”) given name as “John” and the date of his lynching as July 17, 1897.

Among the more than 200 reports of this story I found there were several variations: In some variations of the story the Williams lynching is followed by reports of the alleged Edmondson lynching. In at least one other, an anonymous Black woman was flogged as punishment for hiding Edmondson.

How these newspapers came up with this lynching and the name “Edmondson” is a mystery. The only black man named Edmondson in Lauderdale County on record in 1897, let alone a pastor, was the Rev. NL Edmondson (1856-1901), who pastored St. Paul AME Church in Florence from 1894 until his death from smallpox in 1901.

Rev. Edmondson came to Florence from the Tennessee Conference and had built a Methodist Church at Anniston, Alabama before his transfer to Florence. During his pastorate, in 1895, St. Paul AME Church in Florence tore down the seventy-five year-old Fant Warehouse on the corner of Court and Alabama Streets they had been worshiping in to build a new sanctuary designed by local black barber, musician and amateur architect Constantine “Constant” T. Perkins, Jr. (1870-1942). That congregation worships to this day as Greater St. Paul AME Church on Cherokee Street in Florence and it is the oldest Black congregation in Florence (being founded in the late 1830s/early 1840s).

Edmondson’s wife’s name was Alice Constance Shortidge. (1873-1901), and the couple had at least one child, a daughter Martha, who in 1907 married Clarence Bright in Nashville.

Rev. and Mrs. Edmondson died during a smallpox epidemic in Florence in 1901.

As a Florence resident Edmondson lived nowhere near Iron City, TN (which is about a half-hour away to the north by car). But indeed, the Rev. Edmondson soon after the lynching of Williams and the reports of an anonymous lynching of an African-American pastor named Edmondson began receiving cables and telegrams inquiring as to whether he himself had been lynched or not. Thus experiencing “considerable worry and trouble” the Reverend felt compelled to respond in local and regional papers.

Thus, on Tuesday, August 3, 1897 the Nashville American published a “special” provided by their (unnamed) Florence, Alabama correspondent, who in turn quoted Rev. Edmondson as insisting that:

"I had no connection with the crime, did not know Williams, never saw him, and of course did not shelter him. I am not that kind of a man. These reports have caused me considerable worry and trouble. I have received a number of letters and telegrams asking if I had been hanged, burned and shot. Please correct the report for me, as it does me a great injustice.”

The American closed by saying, "Edmondson is the livest [sic] man on record to have been hanged, burned and shot."

Two days later, on August 8, the Florence Herald also reported that Rev. Edmondson “denies his death, and he is doing all the good he can among his people.”

I have been researching this alleged lynching for six years and it is unknown how Rev. Edmondson came to be reported as a victim of racial violence. I have uncovered zero evidence for anyone being lynched as a result of hiding the fugitive Anthony "Bull" Williams. While several local papers in two counties and other papers across the state reported the lynching of Williams at West Point, Tennessee, no Alabama papers--local or otherwise--reported the alleged lynching of Rev. Edmondson, only national papers hundreds and thousands of miles away.

Source

1. Pittsburgh (PA) Free Press
2. St. Mary's (KS) Eagle
3. The Current Remark (Lyndon, KS)
4. Richmond (VA) Planet
5. Nashville (TN) American

6. Florence (AL) Herald
7. Florence (AL) Times
8. Florence (AL) Herald

Publisher

Newspapers.com

Contributor

Lee Freeman; Brian Murphy

Rights

Images are available for educational and research purposes. This image may not be reproduced for commercial purposes without the express written consent of the copyright holder. It is the responsibility of the interested party to identify the copyright holder and receive permission.

Format

Jpegs

Language

English

Type

Still Images

Files

Negro Preacher Lynched Pittsburgh Free Press FH Sun Jul 18 1897 p 1.jpg
A Mob's Awful Work St. Mary's KS Eagle Thu Jul 22 1897 p 2.jpg
The Current Remark (Lyndon, KS) Thu Jul 22 1897 p 2.jpg
Lynched a Preacher Richmond VA Planet Sat Jul 24 1897 p 3.jpg
NL Edmondson Not Dead by a Long Shot Nash Amer Tue Aug 3 1897 p 3.jpg
Denies His Death FH Thu Aug 5 1897 p 8.jpg
A False Report FT Aug 6 1897 p 3 .jpg
A Worthy Tribute FH Thu May 16 1901 p 4.jpg

Citation

“False Reports of a July 17, 1897 Lynching of Rev. NL Edmondson of St. Paul AME Church, Florence.,” Shoals Black History, accessed March 29, 2024, https://shoalsblackhistory.omeka.net/items/show/1271.