Victim – Ed Sullivan, Williamston Area, 1894
Williamston, S.C., Dec. 12– One of the most brutal murders ever committed in this State was the butchering of Gus Cromer, a step-son of Augustus Williams, of Williamston, last Monday afternoon by Ed Sullivan, a Negro boy about 15 years of age. Last Monday morning Mr. Williams and his step-son, aged 12 years, went to Pelzer. Williams remained there, where he worked, but started his son back to Williamston with a new axe, three…
Continue Reading Victim – Ed Sullivan, Williamston Area, 1894
Victim – Elbert Harris, Iva Area, 1898
Last Thursday night the ginhouse and machinery of E. H. Simpson at Iva was destroyed by fire, and it was the work of an incendiary. Suspicion rested upon Joe Harris, Asbury Harris, and Elbert Harris, all negroes, the first two being half brothers, and the latter a son of Asbury. They were arrested and committed to jail by Magistrate Jackson. They were in charge of Constable McCullough, and on the way a posse overtook them and…
Victim – John Laddison, Rock Mill Area, 1901
Last Saturday afternoon the happy home of Mr. Perry Craft, in Rock Mills Township, about eight miles west of this city, was the scene of a most atrocious crime, for which there was not the slightest provocation. Mr. Craft lives on the plantation of his father-in-law, Mr. Alex Glenn, a highly esteemed citizen of that section, and not far from the latter’s home…
Continue Reading Victim – John Laddison, Rock Mill Area, 1901
Victim – Reuben Elrod, Brushy Creek, 1903
Reuben Elrod, an old negro who lived in Brushy Creek township, Anderson County, about two miles from Piedmont, was killed in his own house by a crowd of white men last Tuesday night, and three negro women occupants of the same house, were given a severe whipping and ordered to leave the community. The women testified at the inquest that about 10 o’clock Tuesday night a posse of 50 white men came to the house, and, after…
Victim – Willis Jackson, Honea Path, 1911
Investigation by Coroner Into the Death of Willis Jackson the Negro Who Assaulted Young White Girl, Results In Verdict That He Came to His Death at Hands of Unknown Mob. It is Said That Josh Ashley and His Son Joe Took No part in Lynching itself. Anderson, Oct. 11. (Special.) “Willis Jackson came to his death from gun shot wounds at the hands of an unknown mob,” was the verdict reached by…
Victim – Ed Sullivan, Williamston Area, 1894
The Anderson Intelligencer. (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, December 19, 1894, Page 1, Image 1 https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026965/1894-12-19/ed-1/seq-1/ Murder and Lynching Two Horrible Tragedies at Williamston, Special to Greenville News. Williamston, S.C., Dec. 12– One of the most brutal murders ever committed in this State was the butchering of Gus Cromer, a step-son of Augustus Williams, of…
Continue Reading Victim – Ed Sullivan, Williamston Area, 1894
Victim – Elbert Harris, Iva Area, 1898
On May 20, 1898, a mob of approximately 20 white men brutally whipped and beat a Black teenager named Elbert Harris, 18 years old, on the side of the road between Iva and Anderson, South Carolina. The mob took Mr. Harris from the custody of a law enforcement agent. After his attack, he was not…
Victim – John Laddison, Rock Mill Area, 1901
https://vimeo.com/1143278044?fl=pl&fe=sh In November 1901, a Black man named John Laddison was lynched near the Rock Mill community of Anderson County. His death was reported in local newspapers through the racialized lens common to that era—stories that relied heavily on white witnesses, sensational details, and assumptions about guilt, while omitting basic facts about Laddison’s life, rights,…
Continue Reading Victim – John Laddison, Rock Mill Area, 1901
Victim – Reuben Elrod, Brushy Creek, 1903
There are no pictures of Reuben Elrod. There are only newspaper accounts of his lynching. The Intelligencer and the Keowee Courier share this story. On Tuesday night, June 30th, Reuben Elrod was murdered in his home in Piedmont, South Carolina by a group of white men. A group of roughly 50 men went to Reuben’s…
Victim – Willis Jackson, Honea Path, 1911
Willis Jackson was a 17 year old African American boy who was accused of assaulting a young girl in a field in Honea Path, South Carolina. After a long and arduous process of the authorities deciding what to do with Jackson, the public decided to take matters into their own hands. On October 11th, 1911,…
About AAR&RI
Anderson Area Remembrance and Reconciliation Initiative In Conjunction with the Equal Justice Initiative Anderson County, South Carolina In the summer of 2020, a group of six people in Anderson formed a steering committee and launched the Anderson Area Remembrance and Reconciliation Initiative. They are currently building a coalition of interested people in Anderson County and…
