Mary Turner was an African-American victim of lynching

Lynching

Lynching is an extrajudicial execution carried out by a mob, often by hanging, but also by burning at the stake or shooting, in order to punish an alleged transgressor, or to intimidate, control, or otherwise manipulate a population of people. It is related to other means of social control that...

 in Valdosta, Georgia

Valdosta, Georgia

Valdosta is the county seat of Lowndes County, Georgia, United States. It is the principal city of the Valdosta Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2010 Census, the city had a total population of 54,518. The Valdosta metropolitan area, according to the 2010 estimate, has a population of 139,588...

.

In May, 1918, 31-year old white plantation

Plantation

A plantation is a long artificially established forest, farm or estate, where crops are grown for sale, often in distant markets rather than for local on-site consumption...

 owner Hampton Smith, known to abuse and beat his workers, was shot and killed by one of his black workers on the plantation, 19-year old Sydney Johnson. After a few days on the plantation, Johnson had been beaten by Smith for not working while he was sick.

A week-long mob-driven manhunt soon ensued, in which at least 11 people were killed; among those killed was another black man, Hayes Turner. Distraught, his eight-month pregnant wife Mary publicly opposed her husband's murder and threatened to have members of the mob arrested. This caused the mob to turn against her. She was taken from her home by a mob of several hundred, had her ankles tied, was hung upside down from a tree, doused in gasoline and motor oil and set on fire.

While Turner was still alive, a member of the mob split her abdomen open with a knife, and the unborn child fell to ground, where it was stomped on and crushed. Finally, Turner's body was riddled with bullets.

After the incident, the Associated Press

Associated Press

The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...

 wrote that Mary Turner had made "unwise remarks" about the execution of her husband, and that "the people, in their indignant mood, took exception to her remarks, as well as her attitude".

See also

• Nadir of American race relations
  Nadir of American race relations
  The "nadir of American race relations" is a term that refers to the period in United States history from the end of Reconstruction through the early 20th century, when racism in the country is deemed to have been worse than in any other period after the American Civil War. During this period,...
  
  
• Mass racial violence in the United States: War and Inter-War Period: 1914 - 1945

External links

• Remembering Mary Turner
• Contemporary account of Walter White
  Walter Francis White
  Walter Francis White was a civil rights activist who led the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People for almost a quarter of a century and directed a broad program of legal challenges to segregation and disfranchisement. He was also a journalist, novelist, and essayist...
  
   in The Crisis
  The Crisis
  The Crisis is the official magazine of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People , and was founded in 1910 by W. E. B. Du Bois , Oswald Garrison Villard, J. Max Barber, Charles Edward Russell, Kelly Miller, W.S. Braithwaite, M. D. Maclean.The original title of the journal was...
  
  
• The Anti-Lynching Crusaders, Digital History
• Mary Turner and the Memory of Lynching
• Mary Turner at Find A Grave