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Raymond Arthur Byrd was born April 2, 1895 in Speedwell, Wythe County, Virginia to Stephen and Josephine Sheffey Byrd. Byrd was the second of four children born in the family. He was an African-American farmhand living in the Black Lick district of Wythe County, Virginia, accused of rape and subsequently lynched by a mob on August 15, 1926.〔Beers, Paul. "The Wythe County Lynching of Raymond Bird: Progressivism vs. Mob Violence in the '20s." Appalachian Journal. 22.1 (1994): 34-59〕〔"Wythe Lynching Shames State, Asserts Court." Richmond Times-Dispatch Sept. 2,1926, pg. 1〕 Byrd was kidnapped from the Wytheville jail by a mob of masked men, shot, bludgeoned and dragged several miles before being hung from a tree.〔 Byrd's lynching became the subject of national news and prompted anti-lynching legislation to be signed into law by Governor Byrd of Virginia in 1928.〔 The only man indicted by a Grand Jury for the lynching, Floyd Willard, was acquitted after only ten minutes of deliberation during the trial on July 19, 1927.〔〔"Jury Quickly Frees Willard in Mob Killing." Richmond Times-Dispatch Aug. 20, 1927〕 == Background == Raymond Byrd, a veteran of World War 1, was a 31-year-old married man at the time of his death. He married Tennessee (Tennie) Hawkins in 1919 and the couple had three children named, Edith, Josephine and Hazel.〔 He was employed as a farmhand by Grover Grubb, a white property owner and father of three daughters.〔 On July 23, 1926 one of Grubb's daughters, Minnie, gave birth in the back of a car en route to the local hospital, to a baby, named Clara (1926-1979), she had conceived with Byrd .〔 Grover Grub was enraged and demanded that the Commonwealth Attorney, H.M. Heuser prosecute Byrd for rape.〔 Heuser and a private lawyer hired by Grubb, Stuart B. Cambell, interviewed Minnie, Essie May and the third daughter named Nell, who was twelve years old at the time. The team of white lawyers determined that Minnie and Essie May consented to having sexual relations allegedly with Byrd several times in the past year, but since they were both legal adults, no charges could be brought up against Byrd on those grounds. It was at this point, once charges couldn't be brought against him towards the two adult women that Byrd was accused of allegedly molesting the underage daughter named Nell. The prosecuting attorneys charged Byrd for this crime.〔 Wythe County Sheriff W.C. Kincer arrested Byrd peacefully while the latter was attending a wake on August 7, 1926.〔 Raymond Byrd was transported to the jail in Wytheville, Wythe County where he was guarded by Claude Richardson.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Killing of Raymond Bird」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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