Jesse Thornton was walking, minding his business, when a cop brutally attacked him. The cop was enraged that Thornton hadn’t addressed him as “Mister.”
Thornton was arrested, but wouldn’t even make it to jail before violence ensued.
A lynch mob formed, throwing stones and shooting at Thornton. But Thornton fought back.Thrashing out, he escaped his restraints and RAN.
Sadly, the mob caught him. They dragged him to a swamp and shot him to death.
Then they kidnapped and assaulted Thornton’s wife, Nellie Thornton, leaving her in a pickup truck overnight and threatening to kill her if she told anyone. She left town the following day.
After Thornton’s body was fished out of the swamp, local government and police forced incarcerated Black men to build a casket for him. Officials organized a funeral without notifying Thornton’s family.
But this wasn’t them paying respects. It was a deliberate public spectacle, a clear message that this is what happens when Black people don’t bow down to white power—a warning to keep us quiet and subjugated.
At every level the anti-Blackness in policing harms us. Silence doesn’t protect us, it empowers others to continue to inflict pain on us. Knowing our stories brings injustice to light and exposes how far those who hate us will go to control us.