Death of Shedrick Thompson
victim of lynching
Shedrick Thompson was an African-American man from Fauquier County, Virginia, who was accused of crimes against his white employers in 1932. He was later found dead, hanging from a tree. Upon discovery, his body was mutilated and burned. While an official verdict declared it a suicide, others maintained that he was lynched. He was 39.
Early life
Shedrick Thompson (also called "Shadrack", "Shadrock" and "Shadric" in some newspaper articles) grew up in Fauquier, the third of nine children born to Fannie and Merrington Thompson. In 1917 "he was drafted into the Army, trained in Arkansas, and shipped to France to serve with other 'colored' troops." He was honorably discharged, returned to Fauquier, married, and resumed his former life as a farmhand.
Accusation of battery, robbery, and rape
His white next-door neighbors and employers, Henry and Mamie Baxley, claimed that on July 17, 1932, Thompson attacked them. They alleged Thompson beat Henry unconscious and took Mamie to a nearby field where he raped and beat her, as well as stealing her rings. Both Baxleys survived.
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This entry incorporates text from “Death of Shedrick Thompson” 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.