Leonard Woods Lynched

XB-27

Leonard Woods, a black coal miner from Jenkins, KY, was lynched near here on the night of 29-30 Nov. 1927. Officers had arrested Woods for allegedly killing Herschel Deaton, a white man from Coeburn, VA, and had taken him to the Whitesburg, KY, jail. On the day of Deaton's funeral, a white mob numbering in the hundreds broke into the jail and brought Woods close to this spot, where they hanged, shot, and burned him. No one was ever arrested. In the aftermath, at the urging of Norfolk editor Louis Jaffé, Norton’s Bruce Crawford, and other journalists, VA Gov. Harry F. Byrd worked with the General Assembly early in 1928 to pass the nation’s first law defining lynching as a state crime.

Department of Historic Resources, 2020

See a problem? Report it to HighwayMarkers@dhr.virginia.gov.

DHR could use your help! We don't have a recent image of this marker. If you have one that you'd like to submit for inclusion on this site, please send it to HighwayMarkers@dhr.virginia.gov.

References/Bibliographic Citation:

Coalfield Progress, 30 Nov. 1927, 14 May, 9 June 2019. Crawford’s Weekly, 3 Dec. 1927. New York Amsterdam News, 7 Dec. 1927. Baltimore Afro-American, 3, 10 Dec. 1927. Chicago Defender, 10 Dec. 1927. Norfolk Journal and Guide, 17 Dec. 1927. Richmond Planet, 10 Dec. 1927. Richmond Times-Dispatch, 30 Nov., 1, 3 Dec. 1927. Leonard Woods Death Certificate, 1927. Alexander S. Leidholdt, “’Never Thot This Could Happen in the South!’: The Anti-Lynching Advocacy of Appalachian Newspaper Editor Bruce Crawford,” Appalachian Journal (Winter/Spring 2011): 198-232. Paul G. Beers, “The Wythe County Lynching of Raymond Bird: Progressivism vs. Mob Violence in the ‘20s,” Appalachian Journal (Fall 1994): 34-59. James Madison University Lynching Database: https://sites.lib.jmu.edu/valynchings/victims/