Raymond Jones (Reported Lynching of)

Newspapers across the country reported the killing of Raymond Jones, “a prosperous negro farmer” in Jefferson County by “white caps” in May 1896, though local reports termed it a murder rather than a lynching.

Newspapers in Illinois, Virginia, Massachusetts, Georgia, Iowa, and Minnesota all reported that Jones was in his home near Tamo (Jefferson County) when it was entered “by three masked white caps, and Jones was shot and killed by one of them” before they forced his wife and children “by threats of violence” to leave the house, which they then set afire. The reports stated that lawmen from Pine Bluff (Jefferson County) were dispatched “to track the fiends,” adding that “the cause of the outrage is unknown.”

The Arkansas Gazette, however, reported that Jones had been killed and his house burned on May 17, 1896, and that “four negro men and the wife of Jones are suspected of being the guilty parties,” and “a smoothing iron…was found near the remains of Jones, whose skull was crushed.”

A Pine Bluff newspaper provided a different version, reporting that Jones and his wife Emma were “soundly sleeping in their little hut” when she heard a noise and “saw a negro crawling in at the window.” She jumped up and ran out of the room but returned after hearing a shot. The assailant then shot at her, “and the woman beat a hasty retreat.” Minutes later, the cabin “was enveloped in flames, and was soon totally destroyed.”

A few days later, Emma Jones, who “was known to have had frequent quarrels with her husband,” and a Black man named Dan Lewis, whose mule’s tracks were found near the crime scene, were arrested. Lewis said that he had spent the night in the neighborhood, “but the parties with whom he claims to have stopped deny it.” Emma Jones and Dan Lewis were freed after a grand jury found “there was no evidence whatever against either of the parties,” though Lula Baxter, “a colored woman, perjured herself in her evidence” before the jury and was indicted and sentenced to three years in prison.

The grand jury finished its term and published a report on the Jones case in which they wrote that they “did not have sufficient testimony to find the guilty parties. We respectfully refer this matter to the next grand jury” and urged Governor James Paul Clarke to offer a reward in the case. No further news reports on Jones’s death were written, so it appears the crime was never solved.

It is unknown where the widely reported “white cap” lynching allegations originated, but this showcases the difficulties of producing any authoritative inventory of lynching events.

For additional information:
“Adjourned.” Pine Bluff Daily Graphic, May 24, 1896, p. 5.

“Arkansas Whitecaps Brutal Work.” Boston Evening Transcript, May 19, 1896, p. 12.

“Assassinated.” [Pine Bluff] Semi-Weekly Graphic, May 20, 1896, p. 1.

“Dismissed.” Pine Bluff Daily Graphic, May 21, 1896, p. 4.

“For Perjury.” Pine Bluff Daily Graphic, May 24, 1896, p. 1.

“He Was a Negro.” [Decatur, Illinois] Herald and Review, May 19, 1896, p. 1.

“A Horrible Death.” Quad City Times, April 27, 1872, p. 1.

“In the Toils.” Semi-Weekly Graphic, May 23, 1896, p. 4.

“Murdered and Cremated.” Arkansas Gazette, May 19, 1896, p. 1.

“Murdered by Whitecaps,” Savannah Morning News, May 20, 1896, p. 5.

“Negro Farmer Killed.” Streator [Illinois] Free Press, May 22, 1896, p. 5.

“White-Cap Outrage in Arkansas.” Richmond Dispatch, May 20, 1896, p. 1.