An Iconic Lynching in the North
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Scholar-Griot: Fran Kaplan, EdD
MARION, INDIANA. August 7, 1930. In the dark before dawn, County Sheriff Jacob Campbell and his officers arrested four black teenagers in their homes. By evening, two would be dead.
The Accused
James Cameron, 16, and Abram Smith, 19, were shoeshine boys. Thomas Shipp, 18, worked at Malleable, a foundry. Robert Sullivan’s occupation is unknown.
They were taken to the fortress-like jail in downtown Marion, the county seat1, population 25,000. There the sheriff and his men beat and interrogated each boy separately until they extracted confessions. Afterwards Tommy, Abe, and Jimmy were locked into separate cells to await trial. For some reason, Robert was released.
The Crime and the Victims
The sheriff charged the boys with raping a white teenager, Mary Ball, 19, and shooting a white man, Claude Deeter, 23, the night before.
It was the beginning of the Great Depression.2 Claude, eldest son of farming family, had been laid off earlier that day from his foundry job at Superior Body.3 Townspeople described Mary in very different ways: loose, a prostitute, Claude’s fiancée, Abram’s girlfriend.
Claude had taken Mary to Lovers’ Lane4, a clearing by the river just outside of Marion. The boys crept up on them, pulled them from the car and held them up at gunpoint for money. Supposedly they raped Mary, then beat and shot Claude several times before driving off. A nearby farmer answered Mary’s cries for help and took Claude to the hospital.
Word Spreads Far and Wide
On that hot August day, while Claude fought for his life, the news of Mary’s rape spread like wildfire. People talked about it all over Marion. They called their relatives and friends in nearby towns and farms. Word even reached cities and towns one hundred miles away.
Marion’s police chief hung Claude’s bloody shirt out the window of the police station like a flag. Crowds of angry white people began to gather around the jail where the black teens were being held.
By early afternoon, Claude died. Word that a hanging was planned had reached across Indiana. Whites were pouring into town by interurban trains5, automobiles and farm wagons to witness the spectacle. The crowd was estimated at ten to fifteen thousand men, women and children.
Many black families hurried out to Weaver, an all-black town nearby. Others stayed in Marion and prepared for an attack on their neighborhoods by white rioters.
This is probably the most well-known photo of a lynching. It was taken by professional photographer in Marion, Lawrence Beitler, who printed and sold hundreds as souvenirs and postcards. The photo inspired the song Strange Fruit. It was featured by LIFE magazine in its 2011 book 100 Photographs That Changed the World.
The Lynching
By evening the crowd was demanding that Sheriff Campbell turn the accused boys over to them. When he refused, strong young men brought sledge hammers from the nearby foundries. They broke the brick around the iron entrance door. The lynching party surged into the jail and passed through unlocked doors to the cell blocks.6
They brought Tommy out first. The crowd dragged him along the cobblestone street, beating his body with bricks, crowbars, high-heeled shoes, and boards. Someone brought a rope. They tied it around the barely conscious boy and pulled him back to the jail. There they hanged him from the window bars.
Abe was next. The mob beat and dragged him down the street to one of the large trees around the courthouse. When the lynchers started to pull him up, Abe tried to pull the noose from his neck. They lowered him down, stabbed him, and broke his arms. Then they pull him up again.
Three eyewitnesses describe the lynching:
The lynching party brought Tommy’s lifeless body and hung it next to Abe’s. Photographer Laurence Beitler took a formal portrait of the dead boys and crowd.
Then they called for Jimmy. They beat him badly7, dragging him from the jail to the square. They stood him between Abe's and Tommy's bodies and placed a noose around his neck.
The Miracle
Suddenly a voice rang out, “Take this boy back. He had nothing to do with any raping or killing.” Miraculously, the crowd calmed down, and Jimmy stumbled back to jail. Later the crowd became occupied with trying to start fires under the two hanged boys. Sheriff Campbell’s men sneaked Jimmy out of town to another jail for safekeeping.
Serving Time
Jimmy Cameron spent a year in jail awaiting trial. At his trial, Mary Ball testified that she had not been raped after all. The all-white jury believed Cameron’s story. He said that he had run away from Lover’s Lane when he recognized Claude Deeter as his regular shoeshine customer. He was not there when Deeter was shot.
The judge sentenced Cameron to two to twenty-one years as an accessory before the fact.8 He served four years in the Indiana State Reformatory before being paroled.
What Happened to the Lynchers
Despite the photograph and what eyewitnesses told investigator Walter White shortly after the event, townspeople claimed not to recognize any of the lynchers. None were ever brought to justice.
What Happened to Cameron
Fifty-eight years later, in 1993, Indiana Governor Evan Bayh officially pardoned Cameron in a ceremony in Marion. Cameron was also given a key to the city.
During his life, Cameron became an entrepreneur, father of five, civil rights activist, and founder of this museum. He taught people to “forgive but not forget” and to be “better, not bitter.”
Find out more about Dr. Cameron’s life here.
Endnotes:
1. A county seat is the “capital” of a county, where the county government is located. County seats have a county courthouse and jail, usually in the center of town.
2The Great Depression began in 1929 and lasted for about ten years. People in the U.S. and around the world suffered from very high unemployment and wide-spread poverty.
3Marion was surrounded by farms. Many farmers earned extra money by working at the factories in town too, or by sending their older children to work there.
4A “Lovers’ Lane” is a private outdoor spot where young couples go to hang out together in cars to talk and make out.
5At that time, many trains ran between towns and cities. People from as far away as Gary (150 miles) and Indianapolis (80 miles) came by train to witness the planned lynching.
6No one knows why the iron-barred doors had been left unlocked.
7He lost a kidney in the beating and had terrible headaches for months afterwards from a concussion.
8An “accessory before the fact” is a person who helps set up a crime but is not there when it is committed.
Sources
- Cameron, James. A Time of Terror: A Survivor's Story. Baltimore: Black Classic Press, 1994.
- Carr, Cynthia. Our Town: A Heartland Lynching, A Haunted Town, and the Hidden History. New York: Crown Publishers, 2006.
- Madison, James H. A Lynching in the Heartland: Race and Memory in America. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2001.
Dr. Kaplan, independent scholar, filmmaker, and social activist, is Coordinator of the America's Black Holocaust Virtual Museum. She co-authored an award-winning screenplay, Fruit of the Tree, based on the life of James Cameron. Dr. Kaplan served as Managing Editor and co-wrote the introduction to the expanded 3rd edition of Dr. Cameron's memoir, A Time of Terror: A Survivor's Story.
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Now we know why these
Tornados are tearing these towns apart! The sins of the parents.
[…] was just sixteen years old in 1930, when he and two other black teenagers were brutally lynched. Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith died, but, miraculously, with the rope already around his neck, James […]
The United States of America needs to acknowledge the fact that they were/are no better than Hitler’s Nazi’s or Tojo’s Rising Sun Japanese or Bin Laden’s terrorists/killers. As Kanye said, America hates black people. This will never change. All countries/societies need to have a minority to hate and want to kill to make themselves feel superior to those weaker or completely outnumbered by the majority. Humans are very sick creatures.
America does not hate black people. At least the current generation is that people of color are not hated. Granted, the “greatest generation” precipitated a problem handed them, and did not handle the problem before passing on. The enemy was a satanic culture of segregation as the solution.
It does not serve the sole armed with a low grade history lesson to compare Hitler, Mussolini, or the brits in Tanzania.
A christian loves black arts, music, sports figures, politicians, actors, singers, educators, military figures, novelists, and countless other circles of rich black culture. America has flaws, as does religion, because it is made up of people with flaws.
Black Lives Matter movement will never rid this country of injustices by segregating one of the greatest races in America. The problem is that mean people suck. Stop sterotyping the actions of a black person like an Elvis Presley song, or the actions of a white person like a Hitler.
One race, one challenge: its more like a John Lennon song. We all came from Africa if you didn’t know. Jesus was a person of color.
This doesn’t suprise.me at all. The entire black community suffers from 400 years of post traumatic stress. Where are our reparations? Were is our justice? Who built this country for free? Who is still discriminated against & oppressed? & they say “we aren’t responsible for what our forefathers did” But they enjoy the benefits of what their forefathers did. I’m 31 & old enough to hear my grandfather tell lynching stories when I was 18 but the say it was hundreds of years ago. I forgive but never forget! Vengeance belongs to the MOST HIGH GOD! Obadiah chapter 2 & Isaiah chapter 1 eases the pain.
[…] the lynching he barely survived as a teenager, Cameron believed in the possibility of redemption and practiced […]
am i the only one freaked out about the elderly lady smiling when shes talking about this?
I find it very creepy too.
That is scary bro
this is very helpful to me for my research.
If this story wasn’t bad enough, I suddenly found myself wanting to vomit after reading ” At his trial, Mary Ball testified that she had not been raped after all.”
This makes me feel disgusted for being from Marion. Racism is still there on ALL sides ( White, Black, Mexican, Jew and Catholic)
I wonder why Rorbert Sullivan was released and what became of him after that whole mess?
[…] Holiday’s protest song “Strange Fruit,” written by the communist activist Abel Meeropol about the public lynchings of two black teenagers, faced an unofficial ban from radio stations due to its […]
Steven Holmes wrote “The United States of America needs to acknowledge the fact that they were/are no better than Hitler’s Nazi’s or Tojo’s Rising Sun Japanese or Bin Laden’s terrorists/killers. As Kanye said, America hates black people. This will never change. All countries/societies need to have a minority to hate and want to kill to make themselves feel superior to those weaker or completely outnumbered by the majority.”
Given the absolutely rampant murder and genocide that occurs on a daily basis in black Africa as well as the fact that according to the USDOJ the homicide rate for blacks in America is 6 times higher than that for whites with 93% of black homicide victims killed by OTHER BLACKS, meaning that blacks murder over 13 times more black people than are murdered by ALL OTHER RACES COMBINED, the above comments are pretty ridiculous. The homicide offender rate for blacks is also 7 times higher than for whites and between 1980 and 2008 blacks committed 52.5% of all homicides, more than all other races combined despite that they are less than 13% of the US population.
It’s probably time to stop playing the racial victim card and start trying to figure out why blacks are so violent toward themselves.
Source for the above numbers is the report: Homicide Trends in the United States 1980 – 2008 pages 11,12 and 13 which was released by the USDO BJS.
Tom, while the FBI Uniform Statistics report (latest 2011) indeed shows that almost 91% of black homicides were committed by black offenders, it also shows that 83% of white homicides were committed by white offenders. https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2011/crime-in-the-u.s.-2011/tables/expanded-homicide-data-table-6. It is well documented that most homicides occur among people familiar with and closest each other (family members, friends, etc.), so in a highly residentially segregated society like ours, it should not surprise us that black mostly kill blacks and whites mostly kill whites. It’s probably time for you to acquire a more nuanced understanding of the roots of white America’s distorted view of black America’s criminality. I suggest you start by reading Michelle Alexander’s excellent book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.
When black people kill other black they go to prison !!! When white people kill black people they don’t!!! White slave owners breed black peoples like animals moving a father or mother to another plantation being forced to breed again as time went on how in the hell do you know who you are kin to? A brother or sister from a different plantation may have had children together and didn’t know that they were related.
Damon wrote: “This doesn’t suprise.me at all. The entire black community suffers from 400 years of post traumatic stress. Where are our reparations? ”
Who would you like reparations from? The black African warrior tribes who enslaved your ancestors before selling them to the transatlantic slave trade?
The ancestors of the thousands of black slave owners who owned slaves in the new world?
Where are the white mans reparations for, beginning with the British Empire, ending slavery in our colonies and abolishing the transatlantic slave trade. How about for all the Union soldiers who fought and died to end it in the United States of America?
How about our reparations for the fact that blacks are less than 13% of the population and between 1980 and 2008 managed to commit 52.5% of the murders?
Source for the above numbers is the report: Homicide Trends in the United States 1980 – 2008 table 7 page 12. That report is courtesy of the Obama DOJ by the way.
The hard cold fact is that slavery was the defacto norm throughout all of human history until it was abolished by white anglo saxon protestants. It certainly wasn’t abolished by any of the slave trading and owning tribes in black Africa. Of course in their defense they were simply doing what every other civilization had done since civilization began.
[…] Cutting to the iconic photograph of the lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith, two black men falsely accused of raping a white woman, Van Peebles adds: “Well, wouldn’t you […]
Tom, you are in need of a history lesson on the origins of chattel slavery versus bonded or forced labor. I would give you one, but I’m not sure it would have any influence upon you. You have taken a story about the indisputable facts of a lynching and turned it into a hateful and misinformed treatise on the state of crime and race in the US. To quote Michael Eric Dyson, you have “statistical myopia.” You use statistics to justify an argument that does not exist. Is black-on-black crime a problem? Of course it is. The African-American community is more keenly aware of its existence than which you are prepared to give credit. To use black-on-black crime as an argument to defend the sins of the past though, is neither logical nor correct. You use these statistics to justify how African-Americans are treated. These assumptions are no different than of those who perpetrated lynchings.
its sad how they didnt let the young boys get a fair trial, all because of some redneck liar, and its still going on today, by the way the white old woman was having fun talking about the lynching. She’s going straight to hell, I cant believe these rabbit dogs white people use to attend lynching parties. They were just a bunch of wild dogs, wanting to see death. The school system will never teach or bring these atrocities in the schools today. Did the families sue the town and state, for this brutal crime against their family members? I hope surviving families sue, because some lawsuits happen years after crimes against families happen in the 30’s and 40’s even 50’s
The president at that time didnt do nothing about these crimes against blacks. Sometimes they would lynch an entire family, but now they want to justify blacks kill blacks, that happen by choice. Lynchings and burning black people alive did not come by choice. It wont be surprising if some of these killers and their family members are still alive today. They could be living among us. I agree with one blogger who said no wonder why there are so many tornadoes, and mud slides, rains washing away homes, its the sins they did in the 20’s and 30’s. The records on lynchings is incorrect, there were many more lynchings that were not recorded. Durings those times, there were lynching mobs, so they could lynch an innocent black person, and throw them down some river, and it wont be recorded. Blacks should be able to get benefits like the indians get today because of atrocities towards them, but blacks get absolutely nothing. Reading about the lynching of these young men, just because the white woman didnt want to blame her husband, its sickening. The same thing happen in the susan smith case, when she said a black man took her tow kids. I hope she suffer many years in prison. I saw her picture some time back, you wont believe it is susan, she is fat and bloated, good for her, she tried to pull the race card. Back in the 30 ‘s or 40’s hundreds of black men would have been lynched because of her lies. America will pay for its sins, they stood and let these bad things happen to innocent , poor black people, sometimes kids.
dr fran, you fail to face the truth, thats why so many blacks were blamed and killed back in the 30’s and 40’s because its always a diversion from the truth. The truth is America and its leaders stood by and let the lynching laws survive for years, even decades. You want to swerve the issue on blacks killing blacks, and white killing white. The evidence is there, black people where killed by lynching mobs, they were chased out their homes, and the leaders pretending they could do nothing about it. No one wants to read a book that divert from the truth, people need to read the book ” Red Summer, Lyinchings in the 1900’ss, and Emmett Till, the killing and lynching of mary turner. Her family members have a website where they teach kids about what happen in the early 1900’s, not only about mary, but many unfortunate people in her circumstance. The president during those times said he could not do nothing about lynchings and killing of black people, so i am not surprise how you try to switch things around, but we know the truth. I dont need to hear it from you , or read a diversion of the truth.
Nanci, I’m afraid you misread my reply to Tom. I was actually trying to correct what I saw as misperceptions in his comments, above. I agree with you that blaming black people for lynching is blaming the victim and that it is appalling that this country has never passed a law against the vigilante murders called lynchings. I applaud anyone, like the family of Mary Turner, who are teaching Americans about this awful, tragic part of American history–as we are doing here at ABHM as well.
My family settled in Marion, Indiana in the mid -to-late 1930’s. My mother, aunts, uncles – nor Grandmother never spoke about this incident. I found out about it through a news documentary detailing lynchings in America. I am making this comment today because I an writing a blog post describing my years growing up in Marion. during the 40’s and 50’s.
I live in Marion. So sad . . .
The people in this photo are long dead. But their children and grand-children would recognize them- especially the smiling, sneering- wicked ones. They have to live with this knowledge.
My dad may have been one of the last surviving witnesses. He lived across the street from the jail. His only memory of that day was that his mom wouldn’t let him off the porch. He was so mad at her. He was seven years old.
My dad and mom never said anything racial to us. I grew up in Marion and had black friends and knew a lot of black people, went to school with them, and didn’t think that was unusual. My parents raised us with no racial biases. I thought that was normal. I didn’t know about what had happened in 1930 until I was much older. Nobody talked about it.
[…] were in southern states. But the iconic image of lynching is that of a Northern White mob – in Marion, Indiana – celebrating the hanging of two Black youths who were arrested for allegedly raping a White […]
[…] An Iconic Lynching In the North – Videos of eye witnesses; News reports […]
This entire episode in history is so pitiful and makes me cry for the four young boys, especially the two who were beaten and murdered. My experience with Black people has taught me that they are filled with love in general and they freely give that love to any person who treats them with respect, kindness and love in return. All of my friends are Black and we are as close anyone could be. We had to move recently due to my husband’s job and my girlfriend drove down here to see us. The area where we now live is terribly backward and at least 35 years behind the times. I see blatant racism here but I refuse to be part of that culture. We kiss my friends when they arrive at our door as well as when they leave and I don’t give a damn who sees us. I honestly love my friends and refuse to act differently just because we live here. To know these young boys were recklessly beaten, dragged and then killed due to such blatant racism just hurts my soul. Mary Ball was a rotten woman and she lied about being raped by one of these young boys because she did not want her boyfriend or husband to know she had enjoyed sexual relations with another man. The agony of those beatings which were savage hurts my heart as well as my soul. Those poor young boys because they had done nothing but were being forced to confess to actions they knew nothing about. How hurtful and sad. I absolutely love my friends and feel so fortunate to know they love me and my husband. I would do anything to help them just as I’m certain they would do for me. We are friends for life as I’m 76, husband 63 and one friend is 82 [friends for 25+ years] another friend is 55 [friends for 4 years] and another friend 52 [friends for 20+ years].