Caesar Sheffield

On April 17, 1915, in Lake Park, Georgia, a Black man named Caesar Sheffield was lynched by a white mob. His story, though over a century old, reflects the deep racial injustices that defined life for African Americans during the era of racial terror—an era rooted in the nation’s origins and echoed in its future.

According to the 1910 U.S. Census, Sheffield was a farmer, and family accounts describe him as a skilled architect’s assistant who built a fine home for his wife and six children. A hardworking family man, he was believed to have immigrated to the United States from the United Kingdom after the Civil War, possibly with a white employer.

His life was brutally cut short after he was accused of stealing meat from a local white man’s smokehouse. Arrested and jailed, he never had the chance to face trial. That night, a mob stormed the unguarded jail, seized him, and carried him off. His body was found the next morning in a cotton field near the railroad station—riddled with bullets and discarded.

Accounts of the event differ. While the official story alleged theft, family members and spoke of a white man who coveted Sheffield’s home and grew angry when refused to sell. Is this more credible than a successful man stealing meat despite having gainful employment, his own home, a wife and loving family? Regardless of which story is true, what remains clear is that Sheffield was denied due process, his fate sealed not by evidence, but by racial bias.

No one was ever arrested or held accountable for Sheffield's killing. The family does not know where he is buried. The trauma fractured his family, forcing them to scatter across states in search of safety and stability. Caesar Sheffield’s death is one of thousands—lives taken by racial terror without justice. Remembering his story helps ensure that the legacy of such injustice continues to inform our present. ABHM is deeply grateful to his granddaughter, Dr. Caryl Sheffield, for her work to preserve his memory—and the histories of so many others who were denied justice, along with the families and communities who endured that terror.