Henry Davis, also recorded as William Davis and Henry Chambers and nicknamed Toe and Foot because of a limp from frostbite, was murdered by a mob in Annapolis, Maryland, in the winter of 1906. Accused of assaulting a white woman, Mrs. John Reid, he was arrested and positively identified on December 16. While held in the Annapolis jail, local talk of a lynching alarmed the sheriff, but on the night of December 21 a masked mob estimated at 25 to 100 men forced into the jail using stolen tools, overwhelmed the guards, and seized Davis from his cell.

The mob dragged him through the streets, beating and kicking him, then hanged him on the banks of College Creek. After hanging, his body was shot more than 100 times and left as a spectacle for hundreds of onlookers. A coroner’s jury and a jury of inquest both returned verdicts blaming persons unknown, and no one was ever arrested or charged in connection with his killing. This remains a stark instance of racial terror and a failure of the justice system.

If anyone has information about the lynching or the identities of those involved, please share what is known.