Ed Johnson

In 1906, a young African American man named Ed Johnson was murdered by a lynch mob in his home town of Chattanooga, Tennessee. He had been sentenced to death for the rape of Nevada Taylor, but Justice John Marshall Harlan of the United States Supreme Court had issued a stay of execution. To prevent delay or avoidance of execution, a mob broke into the jail where Johnson was held and lynched him.

During Johnson's incarceration there was much public interest in the case, and many people including court officers feared a possible lynch attempt.[1] The day after his murder saw widespread strikes among the black community in Chattanooga. Two thousand people attended his funeral on the next day.[2]

Following the murder, President Roosevelt made it his goal to have the members of the mob put in jail by getting the secret service men in on the investigation.[3] Sheriff Joseph Shipp, who had arrested Johnson, was found guilty of contempt of court in United States v. Shipp,; the only crimi