Lynchings in Duluth - Softcover

Fedo, Michael

Softcover

ISBN 10: 087351386X ISBN 13: 9780873513869

Publisher: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2000

Synopsis

On the evening of June 15, 1920, in Duluth, Minnesota, three young black men, accused of the rape of a white woman, were pulled from their jail cells and lynched by a mob numbering in the thousands.
Up to a tenth of the city's residents clogged the street in front of the police station to witness the hanging. Reporters of the two major newspapers of Minneapolis and St. Paul shocked their readers with lurid accounts of the event. Leading newspapers throughout the North vilified Duluthians for having stained their city's good name and castigated them for being no better than southern racists. The governor of Minnesota, J. A. A. Burnquist, then president of the St. Paul chapter of the NAACP, commissioned his adjutant general to launch a formal investigation. Three dozen men were indicted for taking part in the mob action. And one year later, in reaction to the event, the state legislature enacted an antilynching law. Yet, today, the incident is nearly forgotten.

About this title

About the Author:

Michael Fedo was a correspondent for the New York Times and a professor at North Hennepin Community College in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota.

About this edition

• Publisher: Minnesota Historical Society Press
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 087351386X
• ISBN 13: 9780873513869
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 220