Eleanor Rush
Eleanor Rush, age 18, was killed by prison guards in Raleigh, North Carolina in 1956, as she protested the condones of her incarceration. This March 2026, Women’s History Month, we share Rush’s story, following the release of federal records by the Cold Case Civil Rights Records Review Board last month, and the publication of an article in The Assembly featuring her tragic case.
Booker T. Spicely’s life and death retold on stage, in new theatre production
The life and brutal killing of Pfc. Booker T. Spicely, killed in North Carolina in 1944 and whose case was originally researched by CRRJ, is the focus of a new sold-out play, performed this fall in North Carolina.
Rubin Stacy: Lynched, Florida 1935
Pvt. Booker T. Spicely, 34, was killed by Herman Lee Council in Durham County, North Carolina in 1944.
Edward Bracey, killed Labor Day Weekend 1935
Edward Bracey, a farmer, was killed in 1935 by a mob in Hope Hull, Montgomery County, Alabama. During a cotton pickers’ strike, a gang of landlords and vigilantes opened fire on Bracey’s house.
Pvt. Albert H. King
Pvt. Albert H. King (1919 – 1941) was killed by military police officer Robert Lummus at Fort Benn ing in Muscogee County, Georgia.
Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson, 24, was a house painter and WWII veteran who was killed by police officers C.L. Teague and R.W. Young in Greenville, Pitt County, North Carolina.
Wilson knocked on the door of a white family — the Steppes — who called the police alleging that he was trying to break in.
Malcolm Wright
Malcolm Wright (1900 – 1949), a farmer, was killed by James Moore, Eunice Gore, and James “Red” Kellum in Chickasaw County, Mississippi.
Pvt. Booker T. Spicely
Pvt. Booker T. Spicely, a World War II veteran, was killed by bus driver Herman Lee Council in Durham County, North Carolina in 1944, after a confrontation regarding Spicely’s refusal to give up his seat.
Lent Shaw
Lent Shaw (1894 – 1936), a farmer, was killed by a mob in Madison County, Georgia.
Prinest McCann
Prinest McCann (1922 – 1945), a truck driver and WWII veteran, was killed by police officer Melvin Porter in Mobile County, Alabama.
Tom Jones Jr. killed in 1945, Mississippi
Tom Jones Jr., a longshoreman, was killed by David McDonald, a night watchman, in Wilkinson County, Mississippi in 1945.
Ellis Hutson Sr.
Ellis Hutson, Sr., 50, was a truck driver who was killed by Constable Travis Helpenstill in Nacogdoches, Texas in 1948.
Henry “Peg” Gilbert
Henry “Peg” Gilbert, 42, a prosperous farmer and church deacon, was killed in 1947 by Police Chief W. H. Buchanan in the Harris County jail in Harris County, Georgia.
Pvt. Willie Lee Davis
Pvt. Willie Lee Davis (1917 – 1943) was killed by Police Chief James Mitchell Bohannon while on leave in Emanuel County, Georgia.
Willie B. Carlisle
Willie B. Carlisle, 18, was a service station employee who was killed in 1950 by two police officers, Doyle Mitcham and James R. Clark, in Lafayette, Alabama.
Hilliard Brooks
Hilliard Brooks, 22, a WWII veteran, was killed in 1950 by police officer M. E. Mills in Montgomery, Alabama.
Eugene Bell
Eugene Bell, age 22, a WWII veteran and farmer, was killed in 1946 in Amite County, Mississippi.
Isadore Banks
Police reward poster for information regarding Banks’ death, 1954. Courtesy of the archive. Location: Crittenden County, Arkansas Age: 59 Year: 1954 Isadore Banks, 59, was a farm owner and veteran who was killed by unknown…