Business Like Lynching
October 20, 1906
Summary
Four white men lynch a black man in a “business like way” after the “town being quiet all day” following the man’s arrest.
Transcription
Business Like Lynching
At noon today H. Blackburn, 37 years old, colored, who conducts a confectionary store in Argenta was arrested on suspicion of being the man who fired on Mahoney and Belding. No trouble was anticipated, the town being quiet all day, but as a precaution Mayor Faucette and sheriff Kavanaugh swore in fifteen extra policemen and the sheriff sent several extra deputies to assist the police.
The lynching tonight was quietly put through in a business like way. Shortly before 10 o’clock four masked men entered the police station from the rear and one covered the turnkey with a pistol while the others got his keys, quickly unlocked Blackburn’s cell and took him out the back way. Not a shot was fired and there was no loud talking so that Policeman Pratt, Sheriff Kavanaugh and two deputies who were standing on the street a few blocks away knew nothing of what was going on until they heard several shots fired at Main and 6th Streets. Running there they found Blackburn already dead, hanged to a telegraph pole while the crowd around were apparently merely onlookers.
At noon today H. Blackburn, 37 years old, colored, who conducts a confectionary store in Argenta was arrested on suspicion of being the man who fired on Mahoney and Belding. No trouble was anticipated, the town being quiet all day, but as a precaution Mayor Faucette and sheriff Kavanaugh swore in fifteen extra policemen and the sheriff sent several extra deputies to assist the police.
The lynching tonight was quietly put through in a business like way. Shortly before 10 o’clock four masked men entered the police station from the rear and one covered the turnkey with a pistol while the others got his keys, quickly unlocked Blackburn’s cell and took him out the back way. Not a shot was fired and there was no loud talking so that Policeman Pratt, Sheriff Kavanaugh and two deputies who were standing on the street a few blocks away knew nothing of what was going on until they heard several shots fired at Main and 6th Streets. Running there they found Blackburn already dead, hanged to a telegraph pole while the crowd around were apparently merely onlookers.
About this article
Source
Location on Page
Lower Left Quadrant
Topic
Contributed By
Emma Roberts
Citation
“Business Like Lynching,” Black Virginia: The Richmond Planet, 1894-1909, accessed December 7, 2025, https://blackvirginia.richmond.edu/items/show/768.