April 1899

On April 23, 1899, Sam Hose was tortured and burned alive before a crowd of approximately 2,000 near Newman, Georgia. His ears, fingers, and genitals were removed as souvenirs; pieces of his heart and liver were sold in Atlanta. The Atlanta Constitution had offered a $500 reward for his capture. W.E.B. Du Bois, who was walking to deliver a protest letter, encountered Hose's knuckles displayed in a shop window, shaping his shift from scholarship to activism.

Sam Holt (also known as Sam Hose), a Black farmhand in Newnan, Georgia, is seized and lynched before a crowd estimated at 2,000. Before being burned alive, his ears, fingers, and genitals are cut off and distributed to spectators. Pieces of his heart and liver are sold. His knuckles are later displayed in an Atlanta grocery store window. Newspapers advertise the event in advance; special excursion trains run from Atlanta. No one is prosecuted.

Sam Hose, a Black farm laborer in Newman, Georgia, was tortured, mutilated, and burned alive before a crowd estimated at 2,000. His knuckles were cut off and sold as souvenirs, his heart and liver were divided and sold, and his charred bones were crushed for keepsakes. The Atlanta Journal had advertised the burning in advance. Ida B. Wells hired a detective whose investigation confirmed Hose had acted in self-defense, not murder. The spectacle lynching epitomized the ritualized nature of racial terror in Georgia.