The Caddo Parish CIvil Rights Heritage Trail project has demonstrated that Caddo Parish has a history of mob violence. But Wes Harris, the Claiborne Parish Library Historian, says that parishes across Northwest Louisiana have histories of mob violence, too, particularly after the Civil War. Here is one example of historical mob violence in Claiborne Parish, Louisiana, which is now only an hour's drive from Shreveport. ATHENS, La. (KTAL/KMSS) - After a father was insulted by a slight against his daughter in 1907, he called friends and family members and started a controversy in Claiborne Parish. A paved road turns into a dirt road in Claiborne Parish, Louisiana. (Source: KTAL/KMSS' Jaclyn Tripp) It's important to note that in the aftermath of the Civil War, Northwest Louisiana had a pervasive culture of violence and a rise in violence. During that time period, citizens took it upon themselves to administer illicit brands of justice, often in the form of lynching the alleged malefactor. The breakdown of traditional social and economic structures after the Civil War created fertile ground for criminality, and many former Confederate soldiers resorted to outlaw ways instead of depending upon law enforcement to do their jobs. ‘Bloody Caddo’: Research uncovers post-Civil War racial violence Political turmoil, racial tension, and corruption intensified the violence in the region. Local sheriffs and police forces found they were ill-equipped to handle the rise in criminal activity. No race was immune from mob violence during that time period, but African Americans most often faced extrajudicial execution for all sorts of crimes. Some of those crimes were real, and some were imagined. Here's the story of one man who was almost lynched in Claiborne Parish during that time period. Incident at the Claiborne/Bienville line On Saturday, June 7, 1907, a young man saw a young woman at a home near the Claiborne-Bienville Parish line. What happened varies according to the source. According to a Claiborne Parish newspaper, the man who was passing through allegedly insulted the daughter of a well-known citizen who lived between Arcadia and Athens. Other newspapers, however, describe a more sinister version of the story. During the absence of the girl’s father and other family members, the man allegedly attempted to assault her. According to one account, a woman “on the place”—perhaps a servant or sharecropper—chased the man out of the area. The young woman was never touched. Someone, perhaps the father of the slighted girl, phoned the village of Athens and demanded that the man be stopped and held. A crowd of men from the Claiborne/Bienville line soon arrived in Athens. The mob roughed up the young man, tied him up, and carried him off. Athenians believed the mob was going to whip or lynch the man. Upset by the possibility, two posses formed--one in Athens and one in nearby Arcadia. Someone from Athens was overheard while making a phone call to Bridge’s Mill (on the road between Athens and Arcadia) and saying that whatever was going to be done to the man needed to be done quickly because posses were on the way to rescue him. For a few days, few people in the Athens/Arcadia area knew what happened to the prisoner. Outraged by what they had seen and unsure of the man’s fate, citizens from Athens and the surrounding community met in a mass meeting at the Woodman of the World meeting hall on June 10 to investigate. R. D. Martin was elected chairman of the group, and F. E. Marsalis was the secretary. After discussing the matter, the group formed a committee to visit the father of the slighted woman and ask him to attend a meeting of the citizens to "make any statement that he might wish.” As was the custom when impromptu committees were created, a resolution was composed for dissemination to the community. “Whereas on last Saturday evening, June 8, 1907, in Athens, Claiborne Parish, La., a crime against humanity, an outrage on law and society, was perpetrated by arresting without authority, beating over the head with a pistol, binding with a rope a colored citizen, and hurrying him off on the Arcadia Road and when good citizens ask why such treatment, the only response was ‘he has done plenty.’” The resolution said the group was “all for the preservation of the peace and safety of our citizens, for the enforcement of law and order, in behalf of the honor of our community and the youth of our land." The men pledged “to exert our influence to prevent the violation of law and the painful influences of mob violence.” Complex mapping project gives Shreveport civil rights historians the ability to see much bigger picture The meeting strayed to other concerns because the resolution condemned certain business houses of Athens for “unnecessarily opening their stores on Sunday and selling goods in violation of the law, to the detriment of the community and especially to the injury and the demoralization of our young men and boys.” That portion of the resolution likely referred to the sale of intoxicants. Thirty-five men signed the document. Governor Newton Blanchard, a relentless anti-lynching voice in Louisiana politics, insisted on investigating the matter. Blanchard, an attorney from Caddo Parish, had served in the U. S. Senate and on the Louisiana Supreme Court. He knew the history of lynching in northwest Louisiana. On June 19, the Guardian-Journal identified the young man only as a “Winston,” and confirmed he was alive and well. “Just what punishment was given, we do not know, but he was not lynched, nor was his offense one that called for death or severe punishment,” the editor wrote. Claiborne Sheriff J. H. Kirkpatrick sent a letter to Governor Blanchard denying the report that a man had been lynched. Sheriff Kirkpatrick wrote, “With the District Attorney and citizens of Athens, I have investigated the reported lynching near that place and find that the (black man) was not lynched but is alive and well.” But the Shreveport Times reported Winston had been lynched by gunfire and his body possibly burned. The Times admitted it could not verify their claims but assured readers, “It seems a conclusive fact that the (black man) was captured after his attempt at assault and taken away by his captors since which time no trace of him can be found.” Only at the end of the article does the Times relate an account that Winston was not shot and burned, “but that he is alive and able to walk,” and that his captors “took him into the woods and severely chastised him.” The last paragraph implies Winston was “prowling about” but did nothing wrong. The Guardian-Journal criticized other publications that jumped the gun in reporting a lynching had occurred. “How many of the papers that published the false report of the recent lynching near Athens will make any mention of the falsity of the report and state that it was untrue? So far, very few have done so. A newspaper ought to be reliable, but some of them prefer to be sensational.” In a later issue, the Guardian-Journal revisited this complaint. “The daily papers,” the editor wrote, “and their correspondents are too ready, seemingly some of them eager, to report lynchings upon mere rumors. And after the lynchings are reported, corrections are very slowly and grudgingly made, if at all. The papers and their correspondents seemed to be hunting for sensations. The country weeklies seem to be the only source from whence the facts can be obtained in instances of this kind.” Though there was much mob violence in Northwest Louisiana after the Civil War, in this case, the men of Athens, Louisiana, took a stand against mob violence. Their rush to form a posse to intervene in a potential lynching may have saved young Winston’s life. Sources: “Was the Negro Mobbed?” The Guardian-Journal [Homer, LA], June 12, 1907, p. 1.“Negro Lynched.” The Caucasian [Shreveport, LA], June 11, 1907, p. 4; “Negro was Lynched.” Shreveport Times, June 11, 1904, p. 1.“Mass Meeting in Athens.” The Guardian-Journal [Homer, LA], June 19, 1907, p. 7.Cowan, Walter Grieves and Jack McGuire. Louisiana Governors: Rulers, Rascals, and Reformers. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2008, p. 134; “Mob Story is Denied.” Shreveport Times, June 15, 1907, p. 1.“Reported Lynching at Athens Investigated.” New Orleans Times-Democrat, June 15, 1907, p. 9.“No Lynching in Claiborne.” Shreveport Times, June 18, 1907, p. 3. “Negro was Lynched.” Shreveport Times, June 11, 1907, p. 1.The Guardian-Journal [Homer, LA], June 26, 1907, p. 5."Not Lynched.” The Guardian-Journal [Homer, LA], June 19, 1907, p. 1.