The Lynching of John Humphries

EJI-Community Remembrance Project - Asheville in Buncombe County, North Carolina

Marker inscription: On July 15, 1888, a mob of 25 to 40 white men lynched John Humphries, a Black teenager. On July 14, the daughter of a white planter reported being assaulted in the woods. Race-based suspicion was immediately directed towards Black men and boys. Later that evening, without any evidence connecting him to the assault, police nonetheless arrested John Humphries.

Police officers forced the teen to change into a striped shirt and remove his shoes so that he would fit the description of the alleged assailant before they took him to the planter’s home, where a false identification was obtained. John was jailed. The following morning, a masked mob broke into the jail and law enforcement unlocked the cell doors, allowing the mob to kidnap John.

The mob then hung the child from a tree within a few hundred yards of the jail. White mobs regularly displayed complete disregard for the legal system and the constitutional rights of their Black victims.

Law enforcement routinely failed to protect Black people in their custody, even though they had a legal obligation to do so. As in this case, officers sometimes directly assisted or even participated in lynchings. Although two people—including the sheriff—identified at least one mob member by name, no one was held accountable for the racial terror lynching of John Humphries.
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Erected 2021 by Equal Justice Inititive, Buncombe Community Remembrance Project.
Photograph by Angela Wilhelm/Citizen Times.
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Background:
The Buncombe Community Remembrance Project and the MLK Association of Asheville and Buncombe County partnered with EJI to dedicate three historical markers today in memory of three documented victims of racial terror lynching in Buncombe County: John Humphries (1888), Hezekiah Rankin (1891), and Bob Brackett (1897).

The dedication ceremony took place in downtown Asheville at Pack Square Park, where the marker memorializing John Humphries stands near the jail where a white mob abducted the teenager before he was lynched.

The marker memorializing the lynching of Bob Brackett is located at Triangle Park in The Block, a historically Black business district in Asheville.

The third marker, which memorializes the lynching of Hezekiah Rankin, was erected in front of the Craven Street Bridge in the River Arts District near the site where he was lynched.

Over 200 community members gathered at Pack Square Park on a rainy Saturday morning for the opening ceremony.

The program began after a musical selection by local performing arts group Westsound Productions, which provided the soundtrack for the event.

Coalition liaison and Vice Chair of the MLK Association of Asheville and Buncombe County Dr. Joseph Fox made opening remarks. Civil rights liaison and MLK Association Chair Dr. Oralene Simmons spoke about the coalition’s formation and how community stakeholders came together to advance the Historical Marker Project, as well as a Soil Collection Project and Racial Justice Essay Contest.

Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer connected the work of the Buncombe Community Remembrance Project to the city’s commitment to contemporary racial justice work, including a reparations initiative that is underway in Asheville.

County Commissioner Brownie Newman offered remarks reflecting on various manifestations of racial injustice in Buncombe County today and emphasized the need to end mass incarceration, housing discrimination, and the devastation of urban renewal projects.
Coalition liaison and Buncombe County Schools educator Eric Grant recognized the winners of the EJI Racial Justice Essay Contest and teachers who supported the contest.

The three winners—Sarah Ann Buchanan of North Buncombe High School, Jennifer Russ of the School of Inquiry and Life Sciences in Asheville, and Montana Gura of Asheville High School—were invited to read their essays at the marker unveilings, which took place at the site of the markers following the main ceremony.

The Rev. Brent La Prince Edwards centered the audience in prayer throughout the ceremony and unveilings.