On October 9, 1893, a Black man named Bob Hudson was shot to death by a white lynch mob in Weakley County, Tennessee, near the town of Dresden. According to reports, Mr. Hudson’s wife filed charges of assault and battery against a white man, who was subsequently arrested and fined. In retaliation, 10 masked white men dragged Mrs. Hudson from her home and whipped her severely. When Mr. Hudson ran to his wife’s defense, the mob shot and killed him.

During this era of racial terrorism, white men committed sexual violence against Black women with impunity, while the most baseless fears of sexual contact between a Black man and a white woman regularly resulted in deadly violence. Nearly one in four Black men lynched between 1877 to 1945 were accused of improper contact with a white woman. Meanwhile, white men were rarely arrested, let alone convicted or punished for assaulting Black women—or committing lynchings—and, as in this case, if Black people even dared to seek help from authorities, they could be subjected to lethal violence.

Including Bob Hudson, at least six African American victims of racial terror lynching were killed in Weakley County, Tennessee, between 1877 and 1950. Learn more about how over 6,500 Black women, men, and children were victims of racial terror lynching in the U.S. between 1865 and 1950.