Lige Daniels
August 2, 1920· unknown, Center, Texas
- People
- Lige Daniels
- Outcome
- unknown
On August 2, 1920, Lige Daniels, a 16-year-old African American, was lynched by a mob of approximately 1,000 white men who stormed the Shelby County jail in Center, Texas. Daniels had been accused of murdering a white woman but was never tried or convicted. The mob battered down the steel doors, wrecked his cell, dragged him to an oak tree on the courthouse lawn, and hanged him. A photograph of his lifeless body hanging from the tree—surrounded by smiling white men and boys posing beneath him—was made into a postcard and distributed as a souvenir. This image later became one of the most recognized photographs of American lynching after appearing on the cover of James Allen's 2000 book *Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America*. No one who participated in the mob was ever held accountable. Daniels was arrested and confined in the county jail in Center, Texas, accused of killing a white woman. One account identifies the victim as Marjie Hall, the wife of a well-known farmer living near Center, who was brutally attacked and found unconscious with her skull crushed; she died at a local sanitarium. A postcard of the lynching bore the handwritten message: "He killed Earl's grandma. She was Florence's mother." News of Daniels's arrest spread quickly through Shelby County, and deep racial hostility meant Black people were burdened with presumptions of guilt. From twenty miles south, a message was sent to Center's authorities warning that if Daniels was not killed that day, a delegation from San Augustine would arrive that night "to attend to the matter." Captain W.A. Bridges of the Seventh Cavalry received orders from Austin to protect Daniels from the threat of mob violence. His excuse for failing to follow orders was that he could not "find any members of his company in time for mobilization." The mob of one thousand men stormed the jail, and Daniels was murdered without any evidence of his guilt being reviewed in court. Multiple Texas newspapers reported the lynching on August 3, 1920, including the Galveston Daily News, The Eagle (Bryan), The Marshall News Messenger, the Austin American Statesman, and the New York Times. A grand jury investigation was reported on August 4, 1920, but no one was ever prosecuted. On December 15, 2018, the Equal Justice Initiative and the Community Remembrance Project unveiled a historical marker honoring Lige Daniels in Center, Texas. Community leader Delbert Jackson faced significant resistance from local officials regarding the marker's placement on the courthouse lawn. Approximately 60 community members participated in the ceremony, and nine family members of Lige Daniels were present at the unveiling. The marker also commemorates Eolis "Buddy" Evans, who was lynched on May 21, 1928, on the same limb of the same oak tree. A craftsman subsequently made gavels from the dead limb, some of which remain in use today.