June 16, 1920: The aftermath of the lynching of three circus workers in Duluth

Today in the Twin Ports in 1920, the cities of Duluth and Superior began reacting to the tragic events of the night before, when an angry mob stormed Duluth’s Police Headquarters and Jail and lynched Black circus workers Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson, and Isaac McGhie, who were among a group of men falsely accused of rape. The Duluth News Tribune was filled with related stories: The Duluth Police department reported that its headquarters suffered $2,000 worth of damage (about $24,000 today), including broken windows and doors and a hole “nearly three feet square” which the mob cut to gain entrance to a jail cell. The county announced that they would begin rounding up key members of the lynch mob the following day, and officials called for an inquest of the police department. Across the bay, Acting Police Chief Louis Osborne announced that “We are going to run all idle negroes out of Superior—and they’re going to stay out.” Larry Boyd, manager of a traveling carnival operating in Superior, immediately fired all of his black employees. Boyd told the newspaper, “For several years we have had colored employees traveling with our shows. But out of sympathy with the employees of the show and the citizens of Superior and Duluth, because of the terrible occurrences in Duluth, I have discharged them all and I shall never hire another one, even though I have never as yet had any trouble with them.” Superiorites reported seeing groups of African Americans leaving town on foot, carrying their belongings. The alleged rape victim’s father told newspaper he deplored the “lynching by mob” and believed “the courts and their law should be allowed to take their course.” Meanwhile the paper reported that the victim herself was “reasonably certain” that those hung the night before had assaulted her. She told a reporter, “Their faces all looked alike to me as they were lined up for identification but from their voices and their build I’m sure they were some of the right ones.” Read Heidi Bakk-Hansen’s history of Duluth’s 1920 lynching here, and her profiles of its victims here.

A lone Duluth police officer stands outside the headquarters and jail on June 16, 1920—the day after the most notorious day in the history of the Zenith City. (Image: Duluth Public Library)