February 10, 2011

Perhaps the most notorious incident of racial violence in Arkansas occurred on the streets of Little Rock (Pulaski County) on May 4, 1927. Citizens had been upset in late April when an African-American man accused of the murder of a young white girl had been moved out of the city for his safety. Less than one week later, John Carter was accused of assaulting a white woman and her daughter. A mob tracked him down and shot and hanged him. Carter is shown here hanging from a telephone pole before the mob burned his body and dragged it in a caravan of cars through the streets of Little Rock. No charges were ever filed against those involved in his lynching.