1904-05-18
Northampton County, NC

Alleged offense: Rape
Race: Black
Gender: Male
Age: Unrecorded
Legal intervention (in alleged offense): Yes
Legal intervention (following lynching): Unrecorded
Mob size: Unrecorded
Mob members: Unrecorded
Alleged victim: Unrecorded
Household Status: Unrecorded
Occupation: Unrecorded

In a widely but not thoroughly covered instance of lynching, a mob of African American people reportedly hanged a man named Dick Whitehead on May 19, 1904. His lynching, which took place in the Northampton County township of Seaboard, was in response to a sexual assault on a seven-year-old African American child. A policeman arrested Whitehead and was bringing him to jail when he was forcibly abducted from the officer. The mob, which reportedly was composed entirely of African Americans, hanged Whitehead from a nearby tree before riddling his body with bullets.

Documentation

Death certificate: None found
Census: None found

News coverage:

Negro Lynched by Negroes

Location

Town: Seaboard, North Carolina
Latitude/Longitude: 36.491528, -77.441505
Rationale: 

Additional Resources:

Researcher’s Note: