This Day in History: 1899-07-22

A white mob attack officers transporting Frank Embree to stand trial, seize Embree, drive him to the site of an alleged assault, and attempt to extract a confession by stripping him naked and whipping him in front of an assembled crowd of 1,000 onlookers in Fayette, Missouri. Mr. Embree steadfastly maintained his innocence despite this abuse. After withstanding more than 100 lashes to his body, Mr. Embree began screaming and told the men that he would confess. Rather than plead for his life, Mr. Embree begged his attackers to stop the torture and kill him swiftly. Covered in blood from the whipping, with no courtroom or legal system in sight, Mr. Embree offered a confession to the waiting lynch mob and was immediately hanged from a tree.Though published photographs of Mr. Embree’s lynching clearly depict the faces of many of his assailants, no one was ever arrested or tried for his death. Learn more.