Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America

by Michael Harriot

On March 9, seventy-five masked white men stormed the jailhouse, dragged Moss, Stewart, and McDowell out of their cells, and took them to a railroad yard outside of town. McDowell, who had whipped two white men, was shot four times in the face, leaving holes as big as fists. Stewart was shot in the neck and the eye. Moss, the owner, who had nothing to do with the alleged crimes, was shot in the neck. After the executions, a criminal court judge issued an order instructing the sheriff to “take a hundred men, go out to the Curve at once, and shoot down on sight any negro who appears to be making trouble.” Armed white posses emptied local hardware stores of their guns and ammunition and heeded the judge’s order. Evidence would later emerge that the judge may have even participated in the lynching. As the Black residents of the Curve hid in their homes, white residents looted People’s Grocery, forever eliminating Barrett’s Black-owned competitor.