From a “ghastly mistake” to a “near-reign of terror” in NC
The 1920 lynching of Ed Roach and its aftermath in Roxboro…
“It should be a lesson to the people of Person and other counties.” — Walter Ney Keener
In a “Special to the Herald” from Roxboro published in the July 8, 1920 edition of the Durham Morning Herald, readers were informed of the lynching of Ed Roach by a mob of 200 masked men in Person county, North Carolina on the previous day (July 7). Roach was arrested on charges of attempted criminal assault on a 14 year old white girl, but a white mob kidnapped him from the jail and took him to a nearby black church where “[h]e was hanged to the limb of a tree and his body was filled with bullets,” according to the Salisbury Evening Post (July 7, 1920).
“The lynching party performed its task quietly and in a well organized manner,” noted the Herald. The mob had placed armed guards at each intersection to prevent possible interference according to The Charlotte News (July 9). “Everything is quiet here this morning and there are no indications of race feeling,” claimed the Salisbury Post.
