page_title: Springfield race riot of 1908
section_title: Hanging
hierarchical_section_title: Springfield race riot of 1908 / Fate of Richardson and James / Joe James / Hanging
caption_attribution_description: English: Headline in the Cumberland Evening Times for an article reporting about the Springfield race riot of 1908 (Springfield, Illinois, US).
context_page_description: The Springfield race riot of 1908 were events of mass racial violence committed against African Americans by a mob of about 5,000 white Americans and European immigrants in Springfield, Illinois, between August 14 and 16, 1908. Two black men had been arrested as suspects in a rape, and attempted rape and murder. The alleged victims were two young white women and the father of one of them. When a mob seeking to lynch the men discovered the sheriff had transferred them out of the city, the whites furiously spread out to attack black neighborhoods, murdered black citizens on the streets, and destroyed black businesses and homes. The state militia was called out to quell the rioting.
  The riot, trials and aftermath are said to be one of the most well-documented examples of the complex intersection of race, class, and criminal justice in the United States. In 2008 an NPR report on the centenary of the race riot said that the fact of its taking place in a Northern state, specifically in "The Land of Lincoln", demonstrated that blacks were mistreated across the country, not just in the South, and described the event as a proxy for the story of race in America.
context_section_description: A week prior to James' hanging, his mother, Katherine "Katie" Roberts, wrote a letter to Sheriff Werner that she wanted to be there for her son's hanging, but was "too poor to make the trip."  However, by the day before James' hanging, Katie was able to visit James' before his death, as numerous black women in her community donated money to her so that she could travel to see James before he died.
  Roberts was able to see her son twice when she arrived.  During her first visit, James reportedly "never once looked into his mother's face, while she gazed with tear-dimmed eyes into his." Reportedly, the mother and son spoke said few words, with James occasionally muttering, "Mother."  During her last visit, he also reportedly told her that he was innocent of the crime, but not innocent of sin.  They then gave each other a long hug, and she stared at him, for about three minutes before leaving.  She reportedly half-muttered, "Goodbye," on her way out.
  James, described as a "negro boy scarcely of legal age," and who had no money to appeal his sentence, was hanged in the Sangamon County Jail on October 23, 1908, at 10:30 a.m. He was hanged on the city's old gallows, unused since 1898, but refurbished specifically for his death.  Nearly 150 spectators witnessed the hanging, including eight sheriffs from nearby counties who were invited as guests of Sheriff Werner.  Only two black people were present for James' hanging – James' lawyer and his spiritual adviser.
  Before he was hanged, Sheriff Werner asked him if he had anything to say.  He responded, "No sir."  Two minutes later, Sheriff's Deputy, Fred Long, sprung the trap.  It took 11 minutes for James to die.  When his body was taken down, the noose was so tight around his neck that it could not be loosened by hand, and had to be cut.
  Thousands waited in line to view the gallows, with many asking for a piece of the hemp, from the rope that hanged James, as a souvenir.  Later, seven thousand people waited in line, outside the undertakers' shop, McCabe & Gaa, to see his body on display.  The next day, his mother claimed his body, and took it on a train back to Birmingham.
  Although it was stated by his spiritual advisors – Rev. Doswell, a black minister, and Rev. Brandt, of the Evangelical Lutheran Church – who accompanied him to the scaffold on the morning he was hanged, that James "maintained, to the end, that he had nothing to confess as he knew nothing of what occurred on the night of the crime," he provided a statement, right before he was hanged, that was taken as a confession.  It had been provided at the urging of a white religious inmate volunteer, Mary Hickey, who pressured the young man to confess so his soul would not be damned.  He allegedly wrote the following statement:
  I am sorry for the crime I committed. Drunkenness was the cause of it.  In that I have grossly sinned against Mr. Ballard, his family and each and every citizen. But I ask for each and everyone's forgiveness.  When the deed was committed, I was a sinner, and a man of the world.  Since then, I have become a Christian and am confident that God has forgiven me my sins.  To each and every one, I, Joe James, wish to say – whisky and the evil effects of it, are the cause of my being where I am today. I did not realize the greatness of my crime until I was brought to the city prison the next morning after I committed it.
  — Joe James, October 23, 1908
  Moments after witnessing the hanging, Homer Ballard stated:
  Perhaps James was drunk when he killed my father, but it's hard for me to believe.  I ran him to North Grand Avenue and was unable to overtake the fleeing negro.  James was able to run, and if he was as drunk as they claimed, it does not appear to me that he would be able to make such fast time.
  The day after he was hanged, the Illinois State Journal commented on the importance of James to Springfield:
  Springfield will not soon forget Joe James...the youthful Alabama negro has played too important a role on the stage of life in the city to have his name quickly erased from the tablets of memory.
caption: Cumberland Evening Times.
exif: {}