Location: Crittenden County, Arkansas
Age: 59
Year: 1954
Isadore Banks, 59, was a farm owner and veteran who was killed in Crittenden County, Arkansas, in 1954.
According to his wife, Banks, who had a significant amount of property and a business in the area, went to pay some of his employees and never returned home.
Banks’ body was found with a gunshot wound, burned and chained to a tree. A set of keys, some change and an empty fuel can were found near the body.
There were several theories at the time as to why Banks was murdered, but no motive was ever identified.
The case remains unsolved.
For more information, search CRRJ’s archive.
Read more about Banks’ death on the Burnham-Nobles Digital Archive
About the Archive
The Burnham-Nobles Digital Archive houses case files and documents for more than 1,000 cases of racial homicides in the Jim Crow South. Co-founded by Melissa Nobles, professor of political science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Margaret Burnham, CRRJ director and professor of law at Northeastern, these uncovered stories highlight how violence affected lives, defined legal rights and shaped politics between 1930 and 1954.
Documents relating to Banks' death
Arkansas Certificate of Death, filed June 10, 1954
For newspaper reports, advocacy group documents and more, search our archive.
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