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Descendants of a Black man lynched after being accused of raping a white lady in 1898 name their ancestor’s exoneration from a decide 125 years later a “little drop of justice” in an emotional response to the information.
John Henry James was murdered by a white mob in Charlottesville, Virginia after being accused of hitting a 20-year-old Julia Hotopp, a white lady from a rich native household, and forcing her to the bottom.
Longtime newspaper The Each day Progress printed a report in regards to the alleged assault on July 11, 1898, with the headline “Atrocious and outrageous” and an account of what occurred from Hotopp. She described the one that struck her as “a really black man, heavy-set, slight mustache, wore darkish garments, and his toes had been protruding of his footwear.”
Hotopp gave various experiences to different native newspapers. In a single report, she stated she was in a position to fend off her attacker and wasn’t sexually assaulted. In one other, she recounted being gruesomely assaulted.
It didn’t take lengthy for white residents within the space to pin the crime on James, an ice cream vendor, who was sitting in a barroom that day, regardless that he solely “considerably” matched the outline.
James was arrested and brought to jail that day, then smuggled to a different jail in Staunton by evening for “security” causes. The subsequent day, July 12, authorities tried to move him again to Charlottesville for a grand jury listening to, however a white mob monitoring James seized him when the prepare stopped.
They hung him by a noose earlier than opening hearth with a number of pistols whereas his physique was dangling within the air, in accordance with experiences. A Black coroner discovered 30 bullet holes in his physique.
The Each day Progress reported that “he was requested if he wished time to hope,” earlier than he was murdered, to which James reportedly responded, “Earlier than God, I’m harmless.”
Dozens of Black males additionally adopted to guard James however had been outnumbered and compelled to retreat, in accordance with experiences on the time.
The identical day that James was lynched, an Albermarle County grand jury indicted him on the cost of felony assault. His homicide remains to be recounted as essentially the most well-known lynching in Charlottesville to this present day.
On July 12, 2023, 125 years to the day that James was lynched, Albemarle County Circuit Court docket Choose Cheryl V. Higgins on Wednesday dismissed the century-old indictment.
Higgins dominated that the grand jury deliberately and improperly issued the indictment, making “a mockery of the judicial system.” He known as the indictment a “trigger to lynch a person just because he was Black.”
July 12 was additionally the birthday of James’ descendant, Melvin Grady, who selected to have a good time surrounded by relations within the Virginia courtroom the place the ruling got here down that cleared James’ identify.
“This is only one little drop of justice,” Grady instructed native newspaper Charlottesville Tomorrow. “Realizing and touring, I used to be advantageous. However right here, it actually hit me. I’m going again to think about a man who didn’t do sh*t — pardon my language — getting lynched, no proof in any respect. I’m telling you, it’s highly effective. I cried in there, listening to the testimony, the ruling. It was highly effective. I really feel honored to be part of this.”
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