Lynching of Bayner Blackwell
killing of African-American man (1922)
Bayner Blackwell (Multiple names were used including Jim Blackledge and M. Blackleg) was an African-American man who was lynched in Swansboro, Onslow County, North Carolina by a group of men on August 6, 1922. According to the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary it was the 44th of 61 lynchings during 1922 in the United States.
Background
After completing his rural mail run in Swansboro, Cy Jones, (The name Cyrus Long was also used in the newspapers) headed to his home in Maysville, North Carolina around 7:00 PM. Under an hour later his car was found back in Swansboro. In the vehicle, Jones was unconscious, with a gunshot wound to the head. Investigators were able to track down the location of the attack, noting that a mighty struggle must have taken place as there were many broken branches. Jones would later die of his injuries.
The Phoenix Tribune reported that the African-American community claimed that the attackers of Cy Jones were actually whites in blackface who then reported the attack as a Black gang beating Cy Jones.
Lynching
A mob quickly gathered as word of the attack on Cy Jones spread. They began hunting for Blackwell and terrorizing the local Black community. As many as five Black families left their homes in Swansboro due to anti-Black actions.
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This entry incorporates text from “Lynching of Bayner Blackwell” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.