Charles Craven Lynched, 31 July 1902

Charles Craven, a Black man about 25 years old, was lynched here on 31 July 1902. Accused of murdering a White man, Craven was being held at the Leesburg jail. Soon after his arrest, a mob of 300 to 500 men formed outside the jail. Fearing violence, the sheriff requested that the governor deploy militia troops to Leesburg. Before troops could arrive, the mob stormed the jail, overwhelmed the deputies, seized Craven, beat him, and took him a half-mile to this site, where he was hanged and then shot hundreds of times. Craven proclaimed his innocence until his death. Despite many eyewitnesses and several arrests, no one was ever brought to justice, as with most lynchings in the Jim Crow South.