Grant Cole was sitting with friends when a white woman approached him. She demanded that Cole give her a ride downtown.
Cole shifted uncomfortably. Even being seen with her could get him killed. But she wouldn’t take no for an answer.
The woman started yelling hysterically. Cole demanded she leave him alone.
She did, but not for long.
Two days later, Cole was found in an alley, his body riddled with bullets. The entire town was abuzz. Apparently two deputies had visited Cole’s home earlier in the week.
No one ever knew who killed Cole. What IS known is that the woman reported Cole to the sheriff before Cole went missing.
Anti-blackness casts Black people as laboring bodies. When this is denied, it directly works to dismantle whiteness.
And whiteness will always fight, even throw tantrums, to ensure its authority is restored.
Grant Cole was 1 of 4,400 Black people lynched between 1877 to 1950. Many of them were killed because, like Cole, they defied white supremacy. We honor their memory when we do the same.