3 BLACK CIRCUS WORKERS LYNCHED BY MOB IN DULUTH
Duluth, Minnesota (JFK+50) On June 15, 1920, three African-American workers for the John Robinson Circus* were pulled from their cells at City Jail by an "angry mob" and lynched "on a street light pole" a block away.
Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson and Isaac McGhie were three of six black men accused of raping Irene Tuskin, a 19 year old white girl, on the evening of June 14th. The accusations came despite "little evidence" to support them. In fact, a family doctor examined Miss Tuskin on the 15th and found "no physical signs of rape."
The mob, numbering in the thousands, broke into the jail and pulled three of the black men out. After a quick "mock trial," the men were hanged. The following day, the Minnesota National Guard arrived to restore order and protect the three remaining black men.
The Chicago Evening Post editorialized the lynching with these words...
"This is a crime of a Northern state, as black and ugly as any that has brought the South in disrepute."
*John Robinson's Circus was headquartered in Terrace Park, Ohio. The circus presented a one-day performance in Duluth, MN on June 14, 1920. JRC was bought out by the American Circus Corporation (John Ringling) in 1929.
SOURCES
"Duluth Lynchings," Minnesota Historical Society, www.mnhs.org/
"100 years after three black men were lynched in Duluth, racial divides still plague Minnesota," by Boyd Huppert, June 11, 2020, KARE, www.kare11.com/
Duluth, Minnesota (JFK+50) On June 15, 1920, three African-American workers for the John Robinson Circus* were pulled from their cells at City Jail by an "angry mob" and lynched "on a street light pole" a block away.
Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson and Isaac McGhie were three of six black men accused of raping Irene Tuskin, a 19 year old white girl, on the evening of June 14th. The accusations came despite "little evidence" to support them. In fact, a family doctor examined Miss Tuskin on the 15th and found "no physical signs of rape."
The mob, numbering in the thousands, broke into the jail and pulled three of the black men out. After a quick "mock trial," the men were hanged. The following day, the Minnesota National Guard arrived to restore order and protect the three remaining black men.
The Chicago Evening Post editorialized the lynching with these words...
"This is a crime of a Northern state, as black and ugly as any that has brought the South in disrepute."
*John Robinson's Circus was headquartered in Terrace Park, Ohio. The circus presented a one-day performance in Duluth, MN on June 14, 1920. JRC was bought out by the American Circus Corporation (John Ringling) in 1929.
SOURCES
"Duluth Lynchings," Minnesota Historical Society, www.mnhs.org/
"100 years after three black men were lynched in Duluth, racial divides still plague Minnesota," by Boyd Huppert, June 11, 2020, KARE, www.kare11.com/
Clayton-Jackson-McGhie Memorial
Duluth, Minnesota
Photo by Carol M. Highsmith
Library of Congress Image
