Wilbur Little

Outcome

unknown

In March 1921, Wilbur Little, a 23 year old Black man, was lynched in Blount County, Tennessee, after being accused of assaulting a white woman. Little was arrested and held in the county jail while awaiting legal proceedings. He had not been convicted of any crime. While Little was in custody, a white mob forcibly removed him from the jail. He was taken to a wooded area near the town of Maryville, Tennessee, where he was shot and killed. His body was later found bearing multiple gunshot wounds. No effort was made to protect him from mob violence despite clear threats, and no one was held accountable for his death. The lynching occurred during a period when accusations against Black men were frequently used to justify extrajudicial killings and reinforce racial control. Local authorities failed to prevent the mob action, reflecting a broader pattern of law enforcement complicity or indifference in cases of racial terror. Wilbur Little’s lynching stands as a stark example of how the legal system was routinely bypassed to deny Black individuals due process and protection under the law. His death is remembered as part of the long history of lynching that civil rights advocates sought to expose through documentation, protest, and demands for federal anti lynching legislation.