Negro's Body Torn by Mob — Exhumed and Burned, Crisfield MD Newspaper Clipping

Crisfield, Md., July 29. — A newspaper dispatch reports that a white mob, unsatisfied with the lynching of a Black man named Reed, returned the following day, exhumed his body from a crude grave in a swamp, riddled it with bullets, and burned it.

The clipping records that the mob acted openly — without masks, without concealment — and that the town council was subsequently approached by a delegation. The paper notes approvingly that “even among the colored race the work of the lynchers met with approval.”

That sentence is part of the record too.

This clipping documents not only the act of racial terror, but the language used to normalize and justify it — in print, in public, without consequence. These newspapers were read at breakfast tables. Filed in libraries. Preserved in archives.

This is what the record looks like.

Available in three sizes. Framed or print only.