The Lynching Of Allen Brooks/Lynching in America - Dallas, TX - Signs of History on Waymarking.com

"Dallas County Justice Initiative" and "2021" are on the bottom of the Allen Brooks side of the sign, while "Equal Justice Initiative" and "2021" are on the bottom of the sign on the other. The medallion of their Community Remembrance Project is at the top on both sides, noting Dallas County, and the text reads:

The Lynching of Allen Brooks

On March 3, 1910, a 59-year-old Black handyman named Allen Brooks was lynched by a white mob at this intersection. Mr. Brooks was accused --without evidence -- of assaulting his white employer's daughter. During a pre-trial hearing for Mr. Brooks at the Dallas County Courthouse (now the Old Red Court House), a mob of at least 3,000 white men gathered at the courthouse, demanding that Mr. Brooks be lynched. Members of the mob broke into the courtroom, seized Mr. Brooks from law enforcement officers, tied a rope around his neck, and threw him from the second-floor window of the courthouse, fracturing his skull upon impact. A separate faction of the mob surrounded Mr. Brooks, kicking and beating him before dragging him several blocks to this intersection of Main and Akard Streets. The brutal, lawless violence continued near the Elks Arch, where Mr. Brooks was hanged from a telegraph pole in front of 5,000 onlookers. Photographs of Mr. Brooks' lynched body were widely circulated, and attendees took pieces of his clothing as souvenirs. Though several members of the mob gave newspaper interviews, no one was ever held responsible for the lynching of Allen Brooks.

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Lynching in America

In the summer of 1860, three enslaved Black men were falsely accused of arson, which enraged enslavers and white residents in Dallas. The three men were lynched by a white mob and an order was issued that every enslaved Black person should be whipped as a warning. One month later, Texas seceded from the Union. Following the Civil War, fierce resistance to equal rights for Black people and an ideology of white supremacy led to fatal violence against Black women, men, and children. Between 1865 and 1950, thousands of African Americans were victims of mob violence and lynching across the United States. Lynching emerged as the most public, notorious form of racial terrorism, and white mobs acted with impunity, rarely facing legal repercussions for their crimes. White press coverage regularly defended lynchings as justified, and lynch mob members were almost never arrested or prosecuted. Deep racial hostility resulted in targeting and menacing of Black communities after alleged crimes involving white victims. Within a year of the lynching of Mr. Brooks, the city removed the Elks Arch. Over 338 racial terror lynchings of Black people have been documented in Texas, 7 of which are known to have taken place in Dallas County.

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Warning: Mature content is on display at the provided URL.

Group that erected the marker: Equal Justice Initiative Community Remembrance Project (Montgomery, AL) URL of a web site with more information about the history mentioned on the sign: [Web Link] Address of where the marker is located. Approximate if necessary: Pegasus Plaza 1500 Main St Dallas, TX USA 75201

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Date Logged Log   11/21/2023 new.neo visited it