January 28, 1934

After a Black man is cleared of rape charges in Tampa, Florida, a mob abducts him from police custody and lynches him.

January 27, 1967

Deputy sheriff shoots and kills Black man in Birmingham, Alabama, during arrest for failing to take his dog to the vet.

January 26, 1970

In Evans v. Abney, US Supreme Court upholds Georgia court’s decision to close rather than integrate Macon’s Beaconsfield Park, created by Senator Augustus Bacon for whites only.

January 25, 1942

A white mob in Sikeston, Missouri, abducts Cleo Wright, accused of assaulting a white woman, from jail, drags him behind a car, and sets him on fire in front of two Black churches as service lets out.

January 23, 1957

Ku Klux Klan members force Willie Edwards Jr., a Black resident of Montgomery, Alabama, to jump to his death from a bridge over the Alabama River; they never face prosecution for his murder.

January 22, 1883

U.S. Supreme Court in U.S. v. Harris limits Congressional authority to criminalize racial terrorism, including violent acts by the Ku Klux Klan.

January 21, 1804

Virginia legislature passes law this week outlawing all nighttime meetings of enslaved people; such unlawful assemblies are made punishable up to twenty lashes.