Lynching of Charles Atkins

For other uses, see Charles Atkins.

Lynching of Charles Atkins

Part of Jim Crow Era
News coverage of the lynching of Charles Atkins
Date	May 18, 1922
Location	Davisboro, Washington County, Georgia
Participants	Large white mob, 2,000 strong
Deaths	Charles Atkins

Charles Atkins was a 15-year-old African-American boy who was lynched in Davisboro, Washington County, Georgia by a mob on May 18, 1922. According to the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary it was the 25th of 61 lynchings during 1922 in the United States.

Background

Mrs. Elizabeth "Billy" Kitchens, 20, served as a rural mail carrier. While driving her car, 4 miles (6.4 km) from Davisboro, someone pushed their way into her vehicle, placed a shotgun against her head and fired, killing her instantly. Her body was then dragged 50 yards (46 m) away. A local farmer, Sid Lewis, found the body 30 minutes after the shooting and informed Sheriff English at Sandersville, Georgia.

Lynching

A mob made up of 2,000 people found Charles Atkins in Elizabeth Kitchens's car. Around 6:00 PM, May 18, 1922, he was tortured with fire until he confessed to allegedly killing Elizabeth Kitchens for her automobile. He then implicated another boy, John Henry Tarver. Atkins was then hanged and his charred body was shot over 200 times. Hundreds of cars then swarmed the county looking for Tarver and another Black person, George Clark, who had been seen with Tarver.

Bibliography

Notes

• "Negro Boy Tortured and Burned at Stake In Georgia After Killing White Woman". New York Times. May 19, 1922. ISSN 1553-8095. OCLC 1645522. Retrieved July 15, 2020.
• "Georgia Negro burned at the stake". The Pensacola Journal. Pensacola, Escambia, Florida: Mayes & Co. May 19, 1922. pp. 1–8. ISSN 1941-109X. OCLC 16280864. Retrieved February 25, 2022.
• United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary (1926). "To Prevent and Punish the Crime of Lynching: Hearings Before the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on S. 121, Sixty-Ninth Congress, First Session, on Feb. 16, 1926". United States Government Publishing Office. Retrieved January 23, 2022.
• "Her murderer lynched by mob". The West Virginian. Fairmont, Marion, West Virginia: Fairmont Printing and Publishing Company. May 23, 1922. pp. 1–10. ISSN 2576-6228. OCLC 14450054. Retrieved February 25, 2022.