Lynching of Laura and L. D. Nelson
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| Lynching of Laura and L. D. Nelson | |
|---|---|
Photograph no. 2899, one of four extant photographs of the lynching[1]
| |
| Date | May 25, 1911 |
| Photographer | George Henry Farnum |
| Location | Six miles west and one mile south of Okemah, Oklahoma, on a railroad bridge, now demolished, across the North Canadian River.[2] (The replacement bridge became part of Oklahoma State Highway 56.) |
| Coordinates | 35°25′46″N 96°24′28″W |
| Charges | None |
Laura and L. D. Nelson (born c. 1878 and 1897) were an African-American mother and son who were lynched on May 25, 1911, near Okemah, Okfuskee County, Oklahoma.
L. D. had shot and killed Okemah's deputy sheriff, George Loney, on May 2, while Loney and a posse were searching the Nelsons' farm for a stolen cow. L. D. and Laura were both charged with murder, in Laura's case because she had been the first to grab the gun. Her husband, Austin, pleaded guilty to larceny and was sent to the relative safety of the state prison in McAlester. Laura and L. D. were held in the Okemah county jail, possibly along with Laura's baby, to await trial.
During the night of May 24–25, Laura and L. D. were kidnapped from their cells by between a dozen and 40 white men, allegedly including Charley Guthrie, father of the folk singer Woody Guthrie. The Associated Press reported that Laura was raped. She and L. D. were then hanged from a railroad bridge over the North Canadian River. According to one source, Laura's baby was with her but survived the attack.
Sightseers gathered on the bridge in the morning. George Henry Farnum, the owner of Okemah's only photography studio, took photographs, which were distributed as postcards, a common practice at the time.[12]The district judge convened a grand jury, but the killers were never identified.[13] Four of Farnum's photographs are known to have survived—two spectator scenes and one close-up view each of Laura and L. D. Three of the images were re-published in 2000 and exhibited at the Roth Horowitz Gallery in New York by James Allen, an antique collector. The images of Laura Nelson are the only known surviving photographs of a female lynching victim
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