The Lynching of Red Roach was the killing of 25-year-old "Red" Roach in Roxboro, North Carolina for allegedly assaulting the 13-year-old daughter of popular tobacco farmerEdward Chambers. Latter evidence claimed that he was an innocent of assaulting the girl.
Lynching
In an orchard in Apperson County, North Carolina, July 7, 1920, the screams of Edward Chambers' daughter alerted people that she felt threatened by Red Roach. He was able to jump on a Norfolk and Western train at Helena, Va but was arrested by police at the next train stop. He was escorted back to Roxboro, North Carolina and put in jail. A White mob soon formed and stormed the jail dragging Roach to a tree in the courtyard of a church. He was shot to death. A rope was strung over a branch but it was too short so a chain was used to hang Red Roach to death. In the crowd watching was the 13-year-old daughter of tobacco farmer Edward Chambers. Red Roach was part of a work party fixing county roads. After his death, his working party refused to work out of fear they would be lynched by association. After the lynching letters sent and published in The Crisis journal claimed that Roach was killed in case of mistaken identity.
This uprising was one of several incidents of civil unrest that spiked during the so-called American Red Summer, of 1919. Terrorist attacks on black communities and white oppression in over three dozen cities and counties. In most cases, white mobs attacked African American neighborhoods. In some cases, black community groups resisted the attacks, especially in Chicago and Washington DC. Most deaths occurred in rural areas during events like the Elaine Race Riot in Arkansas, where an estimated 100 to 240 black people and 5 white people were killed. Also in 1919 were the Chicago Race Riot and Washington D.C. race riot which killed 38 and 39 people respectively, and with both having many more non-fatal injuries and extensive property damage reaching up into the millions of dollars.
