A Lynching in Duluth

If we think about racism and why it proliferated in this country, we cannot escape the role of the press. I was looking for something else this week and found examples of headlines American newspapers wrote to describe lynchings. Some of what I found:
• The Associated Press wrote, “Five White Men Take Negro Into Woods; Kill Him: Had Been Charges with Associating with White Women!” This headline described a lynching in Shreveport, La.
• The New York World Telegram wrote, “Negro Is Slain By Texas Posse: Victim’s Heart Removed After His Capture By Armed Men.” That headline appeared in 1933.
• The Atlanta Constitution wrote, “Negro and White Scuffle: Negro is Jailed, Lynched.”

As a former journalist, I know how carefully headlines are chosen and written, and I was appalled, not surprised, at some of the headlines I found.

But in looking at the newspaper headlines, I ran across the story about an incident I learned about some time ago.

It was a lynching which took place in Duluth, Minnesota, in 1920. Several Black men, working for the local circus, were accused of raping a white woman. Of the several accused, all six were taken to jail and, after without a trial or being convicted of this crime (which allegedly never took place), they were dragged from their jail cells by an angry white mob. Three of them were lynched.

Irene Tusken was the white woman who accused the men of raping her. Nineteen years old at the time, she and her boyfriend had been to the circus, which was in Duluth for one night. The two of them reportedly went to the main tent after the circus performance, and, though nobody really knows what happened there, the next morning her boyfriend’s father called authorities and reported that six black men had raped his daughter.

The charge stuck though the Tusken family physician could find no evidence of rape, assault or sexual activity.

With three of the black men in jail awaiting trial, white men allowed their anger to mobilize them into a lynch mob. They met little resistance from police as they made their way toward the jail; in fact, from my reading, all I can see is that the police ordered them not to use guns.

No problem. They took bricks, two by fours, and other objects to break the jail windows and tear down doors. All six terrified men (they were all young teens) were dragged from the jail, and the mob conducted a hasty mock trial. They found three of the men guilty of the crime of rape; the other three men were released.

The “convicted” men – Isaac McGhie, Elmer Jackson and Elias Clayton – were beaten and then lynched, their bodies hung on lamp posts in front of the jail. Observers gathered to see the murders, setting up picnic tables and snapping pictures. The scene was gruesome, yet the people reveled in what was going on.

The next morning, the Minnesota National Guard arrived to help protect the remaining three accused men. In all, after the voting and after the first lynching, seven black men (including the ones who had been murdered) were indicted for rape. In the cases of five of the men, the charges were dropped, one man was acquitted and one was convicted. The man convicted, Max Mason, was sentenced to seven to 30 years in prison; he appealed his case but lost. Remember, this conviction happened in spite of the girl’s family physician finding no evidence of sexual activity, rape or assault.

How did the Duluth newspaper cover the story? What were its headlines? The Mankato Daily Free Press wrote, “Mad Dogs Shot Dead Without Ceremony.” That newspaper’s account referred to the three murdered men as “beasts in human shape.” The newspaper further wrote, “The lynching in Duluth will have a wholesome effect on the class of help carried by ordinary circus and carnival troupes. The chances are that no colored help with a carnival attraction or circus will be tolerated hereafter.”

A footnote: nobody was ever convicted of the murder or Isaac McGhie, Elmer Jackson and Elias Clayton. Three white men were put in jail for inciting the riot which resulted in the lynchings, but were released within a year.