The Sheriff Fired

A black man is charged with assaulting a woman and arrested. A mob attacks the jail but is threatened by a sheriff and 12 deputies who fail to save the man from being lynched.

Leander Shaw, colored was charged with assaulting Mrs. Lillian Davis near Pensacola, Florida. He was placed in the county jail at that pace and a mob formed and proceeded to storm the jail. The sheriff was aided by twelve deputies. He warned the mob not to persist in its efforts as he would keep his sworn obligation and defend the jail at any cost. He kept his word and when the men composing this lawless body made the attack upon the jail, he opened fire with revolvers and riot guns. The effect was deadly. Three of the attacking party were killed and many more wounded. The mob was reinforced and scaled the walls, covering the deputies and the bold sheriff with guns and removing the prisoner. They hanged the colored man to an electric light pole, it is indeed gratifying to note that another southern sheriff has had a chance to demonstrate to the country the stuff that is in him. Alonzo Williams, colored, was lynched at Lyons, Georgia, July 16, 1908.

“The Sheriff Fired,” Black Virginia: The Richmond Planet, 1894-1909, accessed September 14, 2026, https://blackvirginia.richmond.edu/items/show/694.