Fired On the Mob

A sheriff and his deputies fire upon a white mob as it attempts to disrupt the trial of a black man.

Alabama is furnishing surprises for the entire civilized world. Jim Brown (colored) charged with felonious assault was tried, convicted and sentenced to be hanged September 20th 1901. This did not seem to suit the mob, which had no doubt brought, pressure, to bear to produce this result, and it proceeded to go up against the sheriff and his deputies. It is said that the trial was one of the swiftest and fairest trials every witnessed in Alabama. How it could be so swift and so fair with a mob around the courthouse, insisting either upon the hanging of the prisoner or the jury will be the question for us all to consider. Judge Pelham pronounced the sentenced and the court-room was cleared of about one-half of the mob. The remaining half was said to be surly and bent on mischief. Mr. J. L. Garrett, the father of the girl urged the mob to disperse and is quoted as saying: “If you have any respect for my feelings, if I can have any weight in your heats, let me urge you as good citizens to go home and obey the law, and I will never cease to thank you from the bottom of my heart.” And yet, even this appeal did not have the effect expected, and Sheriff North has much trouble to clear the court-room. Twenty-eight deputies, armed with revolvers and shot-guns, were stationed in the front hall and at the windows of the court-room. One of the mob, with a revolver in hand started to mount the stair-way, followed by two or three others. Then the firing commenced. The mob fired into the windows. The sheriff and his deputies returned the fire and Arthur Blankenship was killed while pointing his revolver at the windows at which the Deputy Sheriffs were standing. The mob dispersed and Sheriff North left at once with his prisoner for Birmingham, Ala, where he was safely landed in jail. Gradually the mob is being forced up against the fearless officers of the law who will do their duty regardless of the consequences. God grand that others may become imbued with the same spirit. Then lynch-law will go.

“Fired On the Mob,” Black Virginia: The Richmond Planet, 1894-1909, accessed February 19, 2026, https://blackvirginia.richmond.edu/items/show/835.