The white mob burst into Laura Nelson’s home, accusing her family of stealing a cow. Her husband, Austin, confessed: they were hungry and poor.
No one can agree on exactly what happened next.
Either Laura grabbed her gun at the same time her son, L.D., did and it went off, or the sheriff tried to take the gun from L.D. and it fired, killing the white man.
Accident or intentional, they were arrested and Austin was sent to prison. But Laura and her son faced murder charges as well. They waited several weeks for a fair trial – but that’s not what they got.
A mob of white men, refusing to wait to get their “justice,” laughed as they dragged Laura and her son out of jail.
They raped Laura, then lynched her and L.D. – but that wasn’t the end of it. A photographer who’d taken the picture created an awful postcard – a token of white supremacy racists used to keep Blacks in line.
But instead, angered by these horrible crimes, organizations like the NAACP fought back, demanding an end to lynching.
Even though their end was tragic, the Nelsons defended themselves the best they could against oppression. Even if it means our deaths, we must do the same – and our actions may one day spur others to fight for justice.