Elisha Harper

Elisha Harper was a Black veteran of World War I, about 25 years old and recently returned from Europe. He was the son of the Rev. T. F. Harper, a preacher living in Helena, South Carolina. On July 24, 1919, while Harper was walking the streets of Newberry, South Carolina, he was accused of insulting a 14-year-old white girl, who reported him to the authorities. He was arrested and jailed. A white mob gathered and intended to lynch him, but the local sheriff hid Harper away, and the mob did not reach him. Harper survived. His case was reported in two South Carolina newspapers the following week, one of which ran the headline "Negro ex-soldier insults little white girl" — language that reflects the white publishers' framing rather than any established account of what Harper did. His near-lynching was one of many threats faced by Black servicemen in the Red Summer of 1919, when returning soldiers were frequent targets of mob violence.