The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism

by Jemar Tisby

the lynching of Luther and Mary Holbert in February 1904 are not clear, but we know it was about love. According to historian Chris Myers Asch, Luther Holbert, a black worker on the James Eastland plantation in Sunflower County, Mississippi, had been living with Mary, who was the wife (or ex-wife) of another worker, Albert Carr. Holbert and Carr had a dispute over the romance, and the plantation owner, Eastland, intervened. Carr and Eastland went to the Holbert’s cabin armed with guns. Only the results, not the details, of the encounter are known. But at the end of the altercation at the cabin, both Eastland and Carr lay dead at the hands of Luther Holbert.32 Jim Crow “justice” was quick and certain for any black man who killed a white man. Fearing for their lives, Luther and Mary Holbert went on the run. The alleged crime ignited the white population. Hundreds of white men, led by James Eastland’s brother Woods Caperton Eastland, pursued the Holberts with bloodhounds guiding them to their prey. Mary disguised herself as a man, and they hid in the swamp. Three days later, the Holberts were captured. What happened next is a horror of inhumanity. The lynching didn’t happen immediately. It was planned for the next day, a Sunday afternoon after church so a larger crowd could gather. The murderers strategically chose their location for maximum intimidation of the black populace. It was to take place on the property of a black church in Doddsville, Mississippi. The black church ...