Rufus Lesseur

On August 14, 1904, a white woman in Thomaston, Alabama, claimed that a black man had entered her home and frightened her. A posse of white men soon formed and seized Rufus Lesseur, a black man, simply because someone claimed that a hat found near the house belonged to him. The white men locked a terrified Mr. Lesseur into a tiny calaboose, or makeshift jail, in the nearby woods (pictured here) and left him there for more than a day. Then at 3:00 a.m. on August 16, without an investigation, trial, or conviction, a mob of white men broke into the structure, dragged Rufus Lesseur outside, and lynched him, leaving his body riddled with bullets. He was 24 years old. In memoriam of Rufus Lesseur, an innocent man.