On November 9, 1898, a mob of as many as 1,000 white people waged a violent campaign to suppress Black voting in Phoenix, South Carolina, that left at least nine Black people dead. No one was ever held accountable.

The day before, there was a general election in the predominantly Black Greenwood County. A white man named Thomas Tolbert was working to assist African Americans who had been denied the right to vote. Voting in elections had been rare for Black men since 1876, when white leaders committed to racial hierarchy regained power in the state. 

Mr. Tolbert set up on the porch of the Watson and Lake general store, the designated polling place for local voters, to collect affidavits from African Americans who had been barred from voting. They planned to use the collected affidavits to challenge provisions in the 1895 state constitution written to disenfranchise Black voters.

J.I. “Bose” Ethridge, who led the local pro-segregation party, and a group of his supporters approached Mr. Tolbert, ordering him to leave. Mr. Tolbert refused, which prompted Mr. Ethridge to tip over the box of collected affidavits and begin beating Mr. Tolbert. As the two grappled, Mr. Ethridge was killed, and his supporters fired on Mr. Tolbert and the Black residents of Greenwood County who were handing in their affidavits. Mr. Tolbert was shot multiple times in the neck, left arm, and left side, but ultimately survived the attack.

Black residents of Phoenix hid in fear overnight as a large white mob formed in the wake of the confrontation. On November 9, the mob abducted at least 11 Black men and fatally shot five of them: Wade Hampton McKinney, Jesse Williams, Columbus Jackson, Drayton Watts, and George Logan. The mob left the men’s bodies next to a church where Black citizens had recently attended a political meeting, sending a message of terror and intimidation to the Black community. 

On November 10, the mob lynched three more Black men: Essex Harrison, Ben Collins, and Jeff Darling.

Days later, on November 14, an elderly Black woman named Eliza Goode was killed by white men firing weapons indiscriminately into houses on her street. The mob also burned the homes of Black residents and their white allies, and many fled Phoenix in the aftermath of the attacks.

No one was ever arrested or prosecuted for perpetrating this wave of violence.

Donald McKinney, great-nephew of Phoenix Massacre victim Wade Hampton McKinney, stands beside the EJI Community Remembrance Project marker installed in 2023 at the Dr. Benjamin Mays Historic Preservation Site in Greenwood, South Carolina.