Author

Finding aid prepared by Krystle Farman

Title

Lexington News Extra - Lynched

Date

1902 August 12

Repository

University of Kentucky Special Collections

Conditions Governing Access note

The intellectual rights to the collection reside with University of Kentucky Archives.

Preferred Citation Note

2010MS034 : [identification of item], Lexington News Extra - Lynched, 1902 August 12, University of Kentucky Special Collections.

Extent

0.23 Cubic feet

1 box

Abstract

The Lexington News Extra - Lynched consists of a single news extra from 1902 about the lynching of Charles Salyer and Harry Gates for the murder of George W. Johnson. The news extra provides details of both the murder of Johnson, as well as the men who stormed the jail and lynched the two men.

Biography/History

In Lexington in 1902, Charles Slayers and Henry Gates were charged with the murder of George W. Johnson. A week later and in response to the murder, a group of masked men stormed the jail and took Slayers, a young white man, and Gates, a young black man, into their custody. They proceeded to hang both men from a nearby tree. Little information is known about the two men who were lynched by the mob, and the details of the murder for which they died is just as elusive. The murder of George W. Johnson occurred as Gates and Slayers were attempting to steal chickens for payment of a gambling debt.

Scope and Content

News release on the lynching of "Charles Salyers and Harry Gates, murderers of George W. Johnson, swung from the same limb."

Subjects

• Chapel Hill Rare Books.
• Lexington (Ky.)--Newspapers.
• Lexington (Ky.)--Race relations.
• Lynching.
• Murder.

Collection Inventory