Courthouse: The Lynchers' Acquittal

The old Greenville courthouse holds its place in Greenville and South Carolina’s history for housing the last lynching case. This disgraceful act occurred on February 17, 1947, and thirty-one white men were arrested for the murder of Willie Earle.

Mr. Earle was accused of robbing and beating Thomas A. Brown, a Greenville taxi driver, simply because he was seen riding with him that day. Earle was confirmed to have ridden with another taxi but they still put him in the Pickens County jail.

After the arrest, numerous taxi drivers from around the area congregated in front of the jail with weapons and demanded to release Earle to them. With the guard being outnumbered, he did as they asked. Later an anonymous call was made to a black owned funeral home about a “Negro’s body” that turned out to be Willie Earle.

Can you imagine growing up here and hearing stories like that? You could be found lynched just because you took a taxi?

This case caught the attention of many around the country and the FBI was called in to help solve it. Despite the evidence, the 31 men on trial were acquitted and got off free.

I remember hearing about the famous march and sermon by Hawley Lynn following the case. This was a major turning point for our black community because the march was covered by the New Yorker and exposed Greenville as a “racist backwater.” The Willie Earle case brought us together and stressed our need to be leaders in the march for for racial equality.

Suggested Reading:

William B. Gravely. The Stole Him Out of Jail. Columbia: University of South Carolina, 2019.

Dan Hoover. "The Lynching of Willie Earle, SC's Last, Foreshadowed Changing times." The Greenville News. April 09, 2018. Accessed March 21, 2019.

William H Willimon. Who Lynched Willie Earle? Preaching to Confront Racism. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2017.