The Lynching of African Americans in Nacogdoches County

5 Locations | Curated by Paul J. P. Sandul, History Department, Stephen F. Austin University

The lynching of Joe Adams on September 30, 1887, was the first in Nacogdoches County and set off sixteen years of lynchings in the county from 1887 to 1902. This lynching, which local Sheriff Andrew Jackson (John) Spradley failed to prevent, allowed a dangerous precedent of mob violence to grip the…
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Jim Buchanan was a 19- to 20-year-old African American man lynched on October 17, 1902, in Nacogdoches, Texas, after being accused of murdering a white family, Duncan and Nerva Hicks, and raping and killing their daughter, Allie Hicks. As news spread quickly across the country, a white mob formed…
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Esseck White, accused of attempted rape, was one of the final confirmed lynchings in Nacogdoches County on the night of August 8, 1897. While Governor Charles Culberson ordered the militia, commanded by Texas legend General Woodford Mabry, to assist the local Sheriff Andrew Jackson (John) Spradley…
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The lynching of Dee Watkins occurred in Nacogdoches County, Texas on June 11, 1898, a result of whitecapping. Prior to the lynching, Watkins had pitched a tent on a plot of vacant land near the town of Libby (14 miles northeast of Nacogdoches City) with the intention of preempting it according to…
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Three African American men were lynched in Douglass, Texas (about 15 miles west of Nacogdoches City) between February 14 and February 23, 1891. Henry Rollins, Tom Robin, and Tom Rowland were all murdered. Some of their crimes seemed small, but, as we all know about Texas, the consequences were…
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