Ed Johnson
A "Fiendish Crime" by an "Inhuman Monster":
Local Media's Role in the Criminalization of Ed Johnson
On March 19, 1906, Ed Johnson was lynched by a mob for an alleged rape crime on the Walnut Street Bridge in Chattanooga, Tennessee. This exhibit explores the role of the local media in criminalizing Ed Johnson and inciting the violence that led to his murder.
Photograph of South Broad Street and St. Elmo Avenue in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Dated December 9, 1937, 21 years after Ed Johnson walked these streets.
On January 23, 1906, Miss Nevada Taylor was attacked while walking to her home near Forest Hills Cemetery in the St. Elmo neighborhood of Chattanooga, Tennessee. Attacked at night, she admitted remembering very little of her attacker and losing consciousness during the incident. An article from The Chattanooga News dated January 24, 1906, called it a “fiendish and unspeakable crime” committed by a “negro brute” that would “heat southern blood to the boiling point" and prompt law-abiding men to take the law into their own hands.
Undated photograph of Forest Hills Cemetery located in the St. Elmo neighborhood of Chattanooga, Tennessee.
January 24, 1906, Sheriff Joseph Shipp arrests James Broaden of St. Elmo because Broaden fits Nevada Taylor’s vague description. The Chattanooga News publishes an article proclaiming that “Negro Now In County Jail; Suspect of St. Elmo Crime” although no one positively identifies Broaden as the perpetrator. The News also states that an award of $375 is still being offered for the criminal’s capture.
Undated photograph of the Black-Draught Stock Medicine Company building located in the St. Elmo neighborhood of Chattanooga, Tennessee. Will Hixson worked in this subsidiary of the Chattanooga Medicine Company which was established in the early 1900s.
Undated photograph of the Black-Draught Stock Medicine Company building located in the St. Elmo neighborhood of Chattanooga, Tennessee. Will Hixson worked in this subsidiary of the Chattanooga Medicine Company which was established in the early 1900s.
Undated photograph of the Hamilton County Jail in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The "Old Jail" was erected in 1881 and razed in the 1970s.
January 25, the night of Johnson’s arrest, a mob of 1500-3000 Chattanoogans surround the Chattanooga prison demanding Johnson and Broaden be handed over to them. The mob causes severe damage to the jailhouse and threatens other African American prisoners and police officers. Governor John I. Cox calls in the local militia to help protect the jailhouse and the officers on duty. The mob remains unconvinced that Johnson and Broaden had been moved to Nashville. The Chattanooga News dated January 26, 1906 assures the people that everything is fine and that “the law officers of the city and county scored a victory over the mob.” In reality, local business leaders successfully dispersed the mob. The News also assures that if there is enough evidence found against Johnson, then “the law will do what the mob wants done.
Photograph of the courthouse in Chattanooga, Tennessee, dated circa 1800s.
Nevada Taylor and Sheriff Joseph travel to the Nashville prison sometime before February 5, 1906 where Taylor identifies Johnson in a darkened interrogation room. Johnson’s trial begins on February 6, 1906. Nevada Taylor testifies twice during the trial, and both times she is uncertain that Johnson is the man responsible for her attack. According to the News on February 8, all Taylor had to say was that she “would not take the life of an innocent man.” As for the testimony of Will Hixson, who turned over Johnson to the police, Harvey McConnell testified that Will Hixson only knew Johnson because Hixson had chatted with him the day after the attack and got Johnson’s name from him. Several witnesses also testified placing Johnson away from the scene at the time of the attack.
1889 photograph of the Tennessee River Fleet docks as Ross's Landing. A column of the Walnut Street Bridge is visible to the right.
Despite Taylor’s refusal to swear that Johnson attacked her and the lack of any evidence, Johnson is found guilty on February 9. The jury recommends that Johnson be sentenced to death by hanging. The Chattanooga News article published on February 9 announcing the news that Johnson would hang for his “fiendish crime” by vilifying him as a “brute” and “inhuman-monster.” Due to the unfairness of the trial, lawyers Noah Parden and Styles Hutchins appeal the verdict. The appeal is turned down by the local Chattanooga judge. In response, the lawyers take their appeal to the United States Supreme Court. While the request for an appeal is processed, the Chattanooga News publishes information on the black prisoners in the local jail, a countdown of Johnson’s last days, and debates about who should be awarded the money for Johnson’s capture.
Photograph of the February 18, 1891 dedication of the Walnut Street Bridge in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
The Supreme Court agrees to hear Ed Johnson's appeal. Sheriff Joseph Shipp received a telegram on March 19 regarding the appeal and is now responsible for the safety and protection of Ed Johnson so that he may be heard by the justices of the Supreme Court. There could only be two outcomes from a Supreme Court ruling: Johnson could either be back in criminal for resistance or they could find that his civil rights were violated and could walk free. News of Johnson’s appeal spreads quickly throughout the city, sparking the formation of an angry mob. The mob descends upon the unprotected jail stealing Johnson from his cell. Ellen Baker, a white woman who was in the cell next to Johnson, testified that “the night jailer informed her a few minutes before the mob attacked the jail that she had better return to her cell, that there was to be a lynching that night.” An article by The Nashville Globe later condemned Baker's testimony, referring to her as “ignorant” and “unlettered.”
March 20, 1906 issue of the Chattanooga News.
Johnson was taken to the Walnut Street Bridge where the violent mob “riddled” his body with body with bullets. They placed the rope around his neck and hung him. His last words: “God bless you all - I am an innocent man!” An article published on March 23, 1906 in Union County, Tennessee reported “the city was as quiet at the hour of the hanging and afterward as though nothing unusual had occurred.”
March 21 issue of the Ocala Evening Star.
Several African American factory workers and female house servants in Chattanooga refuse to go into work and or quit their jobs in response to Johnson’s murder. The police and news respond by fearing a potential “race riot” or “black uprising.” News of Johnson’s murder spreads throughout the city and reaches states like North Dakota, Texas, and Florida. However, these news stories were not as focused on the lynching as the potential for a “race riot.” The Chattanooga News published an article on March 21, two days after the lynching, proclaiming that the citizens should let “peace and order prevail.” They also assured their readers that “in due time, all things will be explained” and that “white men and colored men should return to their usual avocations as if nothing had happened.”
Learn More
The Ed Johnson Project, a diverse community committee committed to telling the story of Ed Johnson through a memorial, documentary, and scholarship, promotes racial healing and reconciliation in Chattanooga by creating a permanent memorial which acknowledges the lynching of Ed Johnson, honors the courageous work of the attorneys and others who stood up for equal justice and recognizes the resulting United States Supreme Court case that established federal oversight of state-level civil rights issues then and now.
Sources Consulted
1906a. "A Horrible Crime." The Chattanooga News, January 24, 1906.
1906b. "Dramatic Incidents At Johnson's Trial." The Chattanooga News, February 8, 1906.
1906c. "Forty Guests At The County Jail." The Chattanooga News, February 23, 1906.
1906d. "Johnson Hanged On Bridge With Rope From Trolley Car." The Chattanooga News, March 20, 1906.
1906e. "Johnson Lynching." The Jimpecute, March 24, 1906.
1906f. "Johnson Trial Hinges On Alibi For Defendant." The Chattanooga News, February 7, 1906.
1906g. "Johnson's Trial Is Progressing Rapidly." February 6, 1906.
1906h. "Last Night's Mob." The Chattanooga News, January 26, 1906.
1906i. "Let Peace and Order Prevail." The Chattanooga News, March 21, 1906.
1906j. "Mob At Chattanooga." The Commercial, March 23, 1906.
1906k. "Negro Now In County Jail; Suspect of St. Elmo Crime." The Chattanooga Times, January 25, 1906.
1906l. "Race War Is Feared." The Ocala Evening Star, March 21, 1906.
1906m. "Result of Lynching." The Washburn Leader, March 23, 1906.
1906n. "Rewards For Johnson's Capture; Who Is Entitled To Them?" The Chattanooga News, February 21, 1906.
1906o. "Ten More Days For Johnson." The Chattanooga News, March 12, 1906.
1906p. "The Jury Finds Ed Johnson Guilty; He Will Hang For His Fiendish Crime." The Chattanooga News, February 9, 1906.
1907. "Sheriff Shipp's Trial." The Nashville Globe, February 22, 1907. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86064259/1907-02-22/ed-1/seq-4/.
2000. "Lynching Victim Is Cleared, 100 Years Later." The New York Times, February 27, 2000. http://www.nytimes.com/2000/02/27/us/lynching-victim-is-cleared-of-rape-100-years-later.html?mcubz=3.
Curriden, Mark, and Leroy Phillips. 2001. Contempt Of Court: The Turn-of-the-century Lynching That Launched 100 Years of Federalism. New York: First Anchor Books.
Webb, Michael D. 1999. "God Bless You All-I am Innocent." Tennessee Historical Quarterly 58 (2):156-179.
Credit
This exhibit was developed by Randall Shular, an intern in Special Collections from the Department of History.