Felix Hall was a man from Alabama who, at age 19, was lynched, probably by fellow soldiers in Fort Benning, Georgia. [ Curator's note: These postcards, known as "collectibles," are still being sold today in antique stores, rummage sales, and on and offline.] Felix Hall was strung up in a jack-knife position in a shallow ravine. The story of the only known lynching on a U.S. military base. , Civilian aide to the Secretary of War, 1940-1942. In an interview, she said she remembered the spring day in 1941 when her stepfather, Army Sgt. 2023 National Post, a division of Postmedia Network Inc. All rights reserved. Her body is positioned so the viewer does not see the atrocity (rape) that took place before she was lynched. Kenneth Thomas grew up with a similar understanding, even though he is from a different branch of the family tree. Above: Pvt. Hundreds were killed for interacting with white women, sometimes after nothing more than a glance. . As my memory has it, he got other men to go to the site, Follett said. In the various reports, correspondence, lab results and photographs that make up this file, there is no record that anyone on base went looking for Hall when he disappeared. From the position of the body and the location in which it was found, the FBI report said, it does not appear that one man could have committed the crime.. We apologize, but this video has failed to load. When I walk down the hall of the history department now, the names on the doors have all changed. It was early in 1941, eight months before Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, and with World War II already raging overseas, the United States was recruiting young men to serve their country. In Chicago, Scott has exhibited at the Chicago Cultural Center, the Museum of Science and Industry, DuSable Museum of African Art, Harold Washington College, The Center for Contemporary African Art & Culture, South Shore Cultural Center, the School of the Art Institute, Tom Robinson Gallery, The HumanThread Center, Murphy Hill Gallery, the Arena Atelier Creative Zone, and at the Commission on Human Relations September Unity Month Celebrations, which are held around the City. Hall was born on New Years Day 1922 in Millbrook, Ala., a rural town 11 miles north of Montgomery. At the end of May, Daniels published an article in the Nation criticizing the governments silence regarding Halls death. Seventy-five years after Halls life was cut short, Americans are wrestling again with questions about the value placed on the lives of young black men and the ability of the criminal justice system to transcend its historic double standard. He is perhaps most associated with the film Billy Elliot (2000), for which he wrote the screenplay, and with Spoonface Steinberg (1997), written for radio and later adapted for the stage. Hundreds were killed for interacting with white women, sometimes after nothing more than a glance. Thats why I dont come down this way.. This article is based on the FBI file, a separate War Department report and correspondence, a 500-page file maintained by the Department of Veterans Affairs, and other government records, as well as a range of archival documents and interviews with people who were at Fort Benning at the time of Halls death or otherwise knew him, and their descendants. There is no mention of such a report in the file. An appeal of this redaction was rejected by the FBI earlier this year. White wrote to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson, rebuking them for the suggestion that Halls death was a suicide and demanding an investigation. In 2009, while viewing an exhibit at the Knoxville Museum of Art called The lead of the story Omaha mob lynches man, tries to lynch mayor, burns courthouse . His skin was peeling away. Above: Portraits of soldiers in the 24th Infantry Regiment, Company E, before they shipped overseas to fight in the Pacific. It was home primarily to noncommissioned officers, about 30 small houses arranged scattershot on a strip of land between a swampy field and railroad tracks. The large paintings and collages give you an entry point to connect with the human suffering in the images. My grandfather said Felix was a ladys man, Thomas recounted in an interview. First, there must It was early in 1941, eight months before Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, and with World War II already raging overseas, the United States was recruiting young men to serve their country. The cards are black and white or sepia-toned.1 I believe that the small size of these postcards and their lack of color prevent you, the viewer, from connecting with the victims in the postcards. It had a hand-drawn picture of Felix Hall, in uniform, hanging by a noose from a tree. Find Bob Slaughter stock photos and editorial news pictures from Getty Images. Why was he afraid? He had two cousins on the base, and his best friend from home, who enlisted the day after he did, slept in a nearby bunk. She moved to Chicago in 1997 and taught printmaking at the Art Institute of Chicago and figure drawing in their Continuing Education Department. One week later, he had a routine physical exam at Fort Benning. His killers were never prosecuted but 80 years later, the US Army . Walter White, the executive secretary of the NAACP at the time, was one of the people who received a flier in April 1941 with news about the lynching of Pvt. A month later, in a letter to the War Department, Daniels wrote that the delay in any report on secret hearings about a homicide, lynching, or suicide (whichever it was) seems to me pretty bad. 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Though, they weren't the only ones who protested, Frank Bates was one of the many young protesters. Hall started looking into lynching in 2000, when he worked on his master's degree from Virginia Commonwealth University. A Fort Benning physician on April 8 ruled Halls death a homicide. Pvt. The chapters follow Seidule's life, from his upbringing in Alexandria (which he later learned was a major slave-trading hub) and Monroe, Ga. (where a grisly 1946 quadruple lynching remains . In an interview, she said she remembered the spring day in 1941 when her stepfather, Army Sgt. Dorothy Carter, Hodgess eldest living child, was 12 in 1941. The FBI developed a theory that the two men spent the day drinking at Greens house and captured Hall when he was passing by on his way to the post exchange. Whatever happened, he would have done absolutely what the law required.. Hall went home to Alabama for Christmas in 1940. Gildersleeve was notified in advance that the lynching would take place on the City Hall lawn; in preparation for the event, he left his camera in City Hall beforehand. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. Halls body was recovered on the morning of March 28,1941, by a platoon of the 20th Engineer Regiment, which was training in the woods. In their investigations, the FBI and the War Department failed to obtain and in some cases ignored critical information about the crime. The shows are 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 25 and 1:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 26. Kentucky Lynchings 1882 - 1921 Originally Researched by Rob Gallagher Further Research done by Lori DeWinkler of Genealogy Trails to confirm the accuracy of this list. * For the safety of our guests and staff members, The museum requires all visitors ages 3 and up to wear a face mask that covers their nose and mouth at all times. James Arthur Perry, also black, heard that Hall was ordered not to return to work. He turned 19 on Jan. 1. Memorial to the Victims of Lynching. digitized with permission of the Kansas State Historical Society. But two paragraphs detailing Hodgess possible motive remain redacted from the investigation report 75 years after they were written. Ulysses Lee's The Employment of Negro Troops has been long and widely recognized as a standard work on its subject. Soldiers traipsed through them to frequent bars and pick up prostitutes in an Alabama town just across the Chattahoochee River. The War Department remains silent, Hastie wrote to Stimson. Maggots were eating his flesh. He wasnt a coward, so it stuck in my mind that he was afraid, Follett said. He seemed happy in the Army and swept up with his social life. But nearly a month after Hall vanished, he was declared a deserter. This weekend, learn more about Joseph McCoy, pay your respects at the lynching location, and view the remembrance marker. Marvin J. Coyle, who as provost marshal was head of the military police at Fort Benning, believed that Hodges had a motive to kill Hall and a reason to commit this crime in the manner in which it was committed, according to the FBI. Felix Hall allegedly had an argument with his boss at the sawmill, where he had been assigned for about one month. 1988 Players Championship winner Mark McCumber joins state podcast. Lee Hall is a writer whose work is firmly rooted in the expression of the political through the personal. According to the accounts of black soldiers, someone had threatened to kill Hall just a day before he vanished: Henry J. Smith, the white civilian foreman at the sawmill. The lynching of African Americans during this era was a form of racial terrorism intended to intimidate Black people and enforce racial hierarchy and segregation. This makes it easier to get an emotional distance from the horror they show. Pvt. 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