In 1900, the first anti-lynching bill was introduced by Rep. George White, an African American.
It was 100 years ago exactly, on June 15, 1920, when three Black men were dragged from their jail cell by a white mob of up to 10,000 people a few hours north of Minneapolis in the lakeshore town of Duluth, Minnesota.
Although Minnesota is not known as a state where lynchings took place, in fact at least 20 Native American, African American and white immigrant men were murdered in this diabolical manner there.
Ida B. Wells-Barnett, African American journalist and educator, documented lynching and the failure of law enforcement as early as 1892 in “Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases.”
The murders in Duluth were the last known lynchings in Minnesota, until former police Officer Derek Chauvin, his hand casually placed in his pants’ pocket, held his knee on George Floyd’s neck for more than eight minutes as he struggled to breathe.
