Racial Violence in St. Clair County

St. Clair County was created by the Alabama Territorial General Assembly on November 20, 1818 and named after former president of the Continental Congress General Arthur St. Clair. The city of St. Clairsville, now known as Ashville, was the sole county seat from 1821 to 1907. The county is bisected by Backbone Mountain between its northern and southern parts; because of this, it was decided in the Alabama Constitution of 1901 that Pell City could serve as a judicial seat for the southern part of the county. In 1907, Pell City was named a county seat on par with Ashville. This strange phenomenon makes St. Clair County the only county in Alabama with two separate county seats; while both courthouses deal with St. Clair County affairs, the Ashville courthouse houses meetings of the St. Clair County Commission. St. Clair County is located within the 30th Circuit of Alabama, and it is the only County located within that Circuit. Ironically, Pell City has grown considerably over the past fifty years to become the most populous city in the county thanks to its location on the banks of Logan Martin Lake and the burgeoning automotive industry located in the city’s industrial district.

The St. Clair Courthouse in Ashville was established a mere two years after the county’s inception in 1821 as a basic log structure; the Courthouse as we know it today was built in 1844. The jail was constructed adjacent to the Courthouse, and newspaper accounts in the late twentieth century confirm its smaller size. The Piedmont Inquirer in 1893 counted only fifteen prisoners being held in the jail, and in prior years that number typically dwindled to the single digits. The jail’s small size led it to be a relatively insecure holding facility; in the chaos of the Jim Brown case where he was transported to Jefferson County for his safety from a lynch mob, Sheriff James L. North wrote that the jail was “smaller and less secure” due to prior events where another Black man was forcibly removed from the hands of police and lynched in the town square.

The courthouse located in Pell City was built in 1901 upon its naming as a judicial seat; it was constructed in a Neoclassical style that differed from its counterpart over the mountain. Like Ashville, Pell City’s jail was originally located adjacent to the courthouse, but it has been demolished in recent years due to its old age. The earliest writings show a similar occupancy of the Pell City jail as compared to Ashville’s: more often than not, newspapers wrote of escape from the jail rather than of those who were imprisoned. Both the Pell City and Ashville jails have fallen into disrepair; in 2020, the Pell City jail was demolished to make way for a brand-new facility that is scheduled to open in 2022. The St. Clair County Correctional Facility located in Springville was opened in 1983 as a state prison in the Alabama Department of Corrections system. It is generally regarded as one of the worst prisons in Alabama with violence, inmate death, and prison riots becoming commonplace during its existence. This prison is the centerpiece of a 2020 Department of Justice lawsuit alleging inhumane prison conditions and a general lack of protection for inmates.

The aforementioned Sheriff James L. North was the Sheriff of the county through the turn of the twentieth century, and he often received praise from anti-lynching advocates in his cooperation with the law to prevent extrajudicial lynching. This sometimes meant the transport of criminals to safe locations where mobs were less likely to demand violence. This would often create a tension between the citizens of St. Clair County and their judicial counterparts; delegates from the County would attempt to include a mechanism in the Alabama Constitution to remove Sheriff North from office after his protection of Jim Brown in 1901. North’s actions in this event won him praise across the country in outlets such as The New York Times as someone “who has done more for the good repute of his state than any other Alabamian in some time.”

Within the relatively inconspicuous setting of St. Clair County, a tumultuous and infamous death penalty case occurred in 1901 that shook citizens and local government. The case of Jim Brown had all of the factors of a cut-and-dry lynching: the rape of a white woman by a Black man, a lengthy manhunt and eventual capture, and an enraged citizenry that wanted vengeance for the defiling of their “Southern honor”. However, the firm stance of local law enforcement and the judiciary to prevent extrajudicial violence marked a sea change in allowing for justice to work its way through the legal system rather than at the hands of a mob. Jim Brown would eventually meet his death regardless of who was responsible, and his story bears telling if only to revel in the chaos of attempted justice in the early 1900s.

On May 7th of 1901, seventeen-year-old Leia (Dell) Garrett of Springville, Alabama was walking home from school along a dirt road on the edge of town. Jim Brown, a twenty-five-year-old Black man known around the neighborhood, appeared “almost in touch with her,” as the Montgomery Advertiser notes, to the point whereas she tried to run, he caught her instantly. Garrett managed to break free and ran into a nearby pond. Brown followed with a large knife and dragged her out of the pond, choking her violently, and at this point, he began to rape her for nearly an hour. Upon finishing the act, Brown fled, leaving Garrett nearly dead on the ground. After an undetermined amount of time, Garrett was able to drag herself to her home, where she “[fell] in a dead faint on the threshold as she spoke” to her father about the preceding events. The Montgomery Advertiser remarks that her father, “being so excited over the affair, took his gun and hastened over to the town without getting the negro’s name.” Upon reaching the city and recruiting others to join him in the search, it was suggested that he go home and figure out the name or details of the assailant — the irony is that as he returned to go home, Brown returned to the city to enter the post office, then immediately fled. News of the crime did not make it to the rest of the county until two days later when it reached Ashville, home of the St. Clair County Courthouse, and from there a large posse assembled to hunt all over central Alabama for Brown.

The manhunt for Brown was disorganized, to say the least, with many false captures in the quest to lynch the assailant. On May 9th, shortly after the rape of Garrett, the mob recognized Brown in Irondale; upon this realization, Brown fled and was shot at by a railroad man who knew of the crime. A man named Jim Roberts was arrested in Irondale under suspicions of being Brown, but he proved to be the wrong person after positively affirming his identity. After Roberts’s arrest, it was discovered that Brown dropped a pocketbook with his name written in it, his vest, and a coat filled with money. The discovery of this evidence incensed the mob further, and they proceeded to accumulate more members as they moved towards Birmingham in their search. Another Black man thought to be Brown was captured near Leeds, and at once the mob proceeded to ready a lynching. The unnamed man was eventually able to convince the mob that he was not Brown, but this enraged them as well; The Anniston Star wrote that “the mob were so mad they whipped him anyhow and threw him into the river and left him to swim for his life.” Also in Leeds, a Black man was found at on the Southern Railway track with bullets in his back, shot by the mob thinking that he was Brown. It was not until the body was recovered by the local coroner that his identity was proven as either Paul Sharp or Charley Winston, marking another lynching case that occurred in St. Clair County. The hunt for Brown lasted over a month — it wasn’t until June 19th that The Birmingham News reported that Brown had been captured near Charleston, South Carolina. Citizens from Springville travelled to South Carolina to identify Brown, and it was determined that he would return to Alabama to stand trial. Brown “[refused] to return without requisition papers”, and government officials revealed that he was an escaped convict from South Carolina, perhaps making it difficult to return him to the state; however, the Birmingham News argued that “in view of the nature of the crime for which he is wanted in this State [Alabama], the South Carolina officials will agree to his return.”

Brown returned to Alabama on June 23rd per The Birmingham News and “[denied] that he [was] guilty of the crime charged.” The heat in St. Clair County was rising quickly with Brown’s return; after the manhunt that killed other Black men, Sheriff James L. North and Governor William Jelks feared for Brown’s safety if he were to remain in the St. Clair County Jail. In order to protect Brown from the hands of a potential lynch mob, Sheriff North elected to house in him Jefferson County until his trial, which would hopefully take place quickly. Accounts of the preliminary hearing for Brown reflected this fear of lynching, as well. The Gadsden Times-News detailed Brown’s preliminary hearing that took place on July 1st, noting that it was “very private” and “concluded within a short time” due to Ms. Garrett’s presence and identification of Brown as her assailant. The prosecution, headed by Attorney General Charles G. Brown, decided that it would be best for Brown to remain in the custody of Jefferson County Sheriff Burgin until a grand jury could meet and investigate the case in St. Clair County. That same account of the preliminary hearing noted that “The negro will be held in the county jail and an effort will be made to have to have the final trial held here on account of the fear of a lynching if the negro is removed to St. Clair County.” This fear of an extrajudicial lynching reflected the growing sentiment in the Alabama state government — as this case was working its way through the judicial system, anti-lynching advocates were gathering in Montgomery to amend the Alabama Constitution to penalize local jurisdictions that permitted lynchings. Anti-lynching advocates saw law enforcement and local government as the gateway to preventing lynchings, and thus the new Constitution would actually make local sheriffs responsible for any lynchings that occurred within their county’s boundaries.

The citizens of St. Clair County did not take kindly to the notion that Brown would be held in Jefferson County. On July 3rd, a mass meeting was held to “urge the Governor” that Brown should be tried at Ashville rather than in Jefferson County, as well as to give the Governor and Sheriff assurance that Brown would not be at risk of a lynching if held within St. Clair County. Citizens of St. Clair were offended at the notion that they would be violent towards Brown, despite the violence that occurred while they were searching for him and the tendency of county citizens to lynch Black men after they were detained by police. With regards to the content of this meeting, The Anniston Star reported that “after a number of speeches had been made by white and colored citizens,” the congregants adopted a long set of resolutions condemning Sheriff North, Governor Jelks, and Seventh Circuit Judge Pelham that concluded by declaring the following:

…that the people of St. Clair County are law-abiding and law-sustaining, that they deprecate any effort by few or many to trample underfoot (sic) the laws of the land or the rights of individuals, and that they hurl back with indignation and disdain into the teeth of the individual or individuals that they are otherwise. They demand of those whose duty it is under the law, to proceed at once to try under the forms of the law provided the rapist, Jim Brown, and declare that if a trial by law is speedily provided in his case at Ashville, in St. Clair County, and not elsewhere, that they pledge themselves that the law shall take its course and that the people will be satisfied. These resolutions denounce the effort of the high officials who engaged to outlaw and outrage 20,000 men, women, and children composing the population of St. Clair County, striking down at one revolutionary blow all the rights guaranteed to them as individuals and a county to have and exercise local self-government in a farce called a preliminary trial of Jim Brown before a tribunal without jurisdiction.

These fiery statements exemplified the tension building between the citizenry and the local government. However, Brown would remain in Jefferson County until his trial, which was set for later in August. This relative quickness was promoted by Governor Jelks after receiving the resolutions of the St. Clair County citizens. Jelks argued that “a speedy trial was the surest way to minimize lynching, and for that reason he was anxious to have the trial at an early date as possible.”

On August 21st, Sheriff North arrived in Ashville at the St. Clair County Courthouse with ten heavily armed deputies guarding Jim Brown. According to The Gadsden Times-News, Judge Pelham convened court immediately, and Brown “entered a plea of not guilty,” which aligned with his previous denial upon being captured. A large crowd gathered outside the courthouse for this arraignment, but it was generally understood that Brown was to have a quiet trial with no interference from the mob — this was the citizens of St. Clair County trying to affirm what they had previously declared, out of respect for Judge Pelham’s immediate attempt to try him and reach an almost certain sentence of the death penalty. It was almost as if Brown’s certain demise at the hands of the law was a valid tradeoff for the enraged citizens.

On Thursday, August 22nd, the proper trial of Jim Brown began in Ashville. Judge John W. Inzer and James A. Embry were appointed to defend Brown, with Attorney General Charles G. Brown handling the prosecution. Not much was reported of the trial, other than the appearance of Ms. Garrett at the witness stand sealing the case against Brown. The only witnesses heard were those for the State, with the defense having no witnesses — it was clear that there would not be much effort in defending Brown against his charges, but rather holding a trial to simply put him to death. According to the Daily Mountain Eagle, Garrett “gave a graphic account of her struggles with her assailant and finally, she positively identified the prisoner as her assailant.” Stretching her index finger at Brown, she said “That is the man; I am absolutely certain that he is the man.” The trial itself lasted just two hours and one minute, with the jury reading the following verdict at 12:01 p.m.: “We, the jury, find the defendant guilty as charged in the indictment and fix the penalty at death.” Brown was promptly sentenced to hang on September 20th, 1901; perhaps more controversially, it was decided by Judge Pelham and Sheriff North that Brown would return to Jefferson County to await his death rather than remaining in St. Clair County because of the aforementioned fear of an extrajudicial death sentence.

This proposition quickly enraged few citizens that had amassed inside the courthouse, and the news of both the verdict and ensuing plans for Brown’s detainment made its way outside to the massive crowd that had gathered outside the courthouse. It’s recorded that after attempting to clear the courthouse of its angry attendees, the father of Ms. Garrett, J.L. Garrett, climbed a table and spoke:

“If you have any respect for my feelings; if I can have any weight in your hearts, let me urge you as good citizens to go home and obey the law and I will never cease thanking you from the bottom of my heart from this day to the day of my death.”

Garrett’s words proceeded to clear the courthouse itself but had little effect on the mob outside. According to The Weekly Advertiser, the crowd had grown “so large that the Sheriff deemed it unsafe to try to get his prisoner back to jail at that time,” despite having the presence of twenty-eight armed deputies. Various accounts report that roughly four hundred citizens had mobbed on the courthouse steps, demanding that Brown be delivered to them to be lynched — Sheriff North responded that “he had orders” to remove Brown to Birmingham, and that he would “shoot the first man who placed his foot upon the courthouse steps.” This standoff between North and the mob continued until roughly 1 pm — at that point, “an excited citizen” climbed the steps with a revolver and fired at North and the deputies. A prolonged and violent shootout began; officers fired from within the courthouse, citizens fired back from outside, and bullets flew nonstop through the air. Shockingly, three members of the mob fell out into the street — two brothers, Walter and Arthur Blankenship, were fatally shot by law enforcement, and a child was shot in the head. At this point, a heavy rain began, dispersing the mob and sending the men into the streets and their homes in order to gain more men and weapons. Sheriff North took this opportunity to escape with Brown and the deputies to Birmingham, travelling through the words and boarding a freight train that would take them to Jefferson County. According to The Montgomery Advertiser, “all was quiet” on the day after the riotous trial, barring the strong bitter feelings of the Blankenship family towards Sheriff North. However, this same account notes that North’s actions were generally approved by the “good” citizens of the county, as he “did his sworn duty”. National outlets also approved of North’s actions, even with him murdering two citizens — the New York World spoke of North delivering a “wholesome precedent” in order to end the “law-defying barbarities” that had put Alabama to shame previously. Furthermore, an opinion piece written in The Anniston Star on August 26th referenced Governor Jelks’s decision to hold a speedy trial as being extremely effective in ensuring that “justice is given under any and all circumstances alike,” and that “speedy trials and swift punishment” are the best set of procedures to remedy mob violence.

On the way to Birmingham, Brown reportedly confessed to the crime of raping Ms. Garrett, with The Weekly Advertiser remarking that “his only excuse was that he must have been crazy when he did it.” Brown’s demeanor while being held in Birmingham before his death was reported on by multiple outlets engaged in the controversy. According to The Gadsden Times-News, Brown was “unconcerned as to his approaching doom”, eating three meals a day and indulging in watermelon as a treat. While he had previously been described as non-religious, another account in The Birmingham News reflected on a meeting and similar confession between himself and Reverend S.M. Fisher:

Brown told the preacher of his previous life, how he had avoided religious instruction, and how his life was spent in wickedness. Brown admitted his guilt to the preacher, and reiterating the confession told in the presence of a News reporter the day that the mob attempted to get him at Ashville. Brown told the preacher that he knew his crime meant certain death in this country, but he was crazy at the time.

This stoic acceptance lasted until the day before Brown was scheduled to hang, with The Montgomery Advertiser reporting that “Brown is very stoical and sullen…he does not claim to have gotten religion.”

On September 20th, Jim Brown was escorted from the Jefferson County jail to the Ashville jail to be hanged. Accompanied by one hundred armed men led by Colonel E. L. Higdon due to fears of lynching, Brown was led safely to the jail where he awaited his fate. At 11:57 he was led up to the gallows platform by Col. Higdon and former Sheriff Abner Crow; notably, Sheriff North was not present for the execution, as he was under arrest on a charge of murdering the Blankenship brothers at the riot on the courthouse steps. At the gallows, Brown repudiated his former confession, proclaiming his innocence. The only other statement that Brown gave, per The Montgomery Advertiser, was to his attorney in the jail, asking for his body to be sent home to his wife in South Carolina. Somewhat strangely, he also gave his proper name: John Wilson. At 12:02, Reverend N.H. Armstead led a short prayer, followed by Brown’s fashioning over the trap door. At 12:07, Brown was hanged — the fall did not break his neck, and he was forced to strangle to death in excruciating fashion for eighteen minutes. An account from The Montgomery Advertiser reports that roughly “150 persons” were present from all over central Alabama, and that “the people were well pleased with the way things passed off.” This gruesome display finished the controversial case of Jim Brown — ending in a hanging, but one passed down through the judiciary rather than at the hands of a hateful mob.

On August 1, 1901, William Vann and his family embarked upon a walking trip from Irondale to Anniston. The reasons for this were unknown; according to local descriptions, Vann was “not an active fellow”, but rather a “white tramp who wandered from place to place” with his family in tow. Going through the woods, Vann and his family stopped at a St. Clair County farm owned by John S. McLaughlin near the town of Leeds. The farm was located just across the Jefferson County line, barely stretching into St. Clair County and the jurisdiction of Sheriff James North.

The Birmingham News offered the best description of the events of August 1st in their August 3rd edition, detailing the encounters that would lead to this notable lynching case in St. Clair County. As Vann and his family made their way onto the farm, they passed a Black farmhand of McLaughlin’s named Charlie Bentley that they allegedly asked for water. According to the News, Bentley then watched the family settle in to their campsite towards the McLaughlin residence. In the middle of the night, Bentley crept up to the campsite and bludgeoned William Vann’s skull with a rock as his wife and kids watched on. Vann would later perish from his injuries; autopsies revealed that his skull had been crushed “at least two and a half inches across” from the attack. After striking William, Bentley allegedly moved on to an assault on Mrs. Vann; it has been reported that Bentley’s motive behind the attack was to rape Mrs. Vann, but this was ultimately abandoned when Mrs. Vann began to scream and draw attention from the McLaughlin residence. Bentley fled on foot, sprinting away from the scene of the crime to escape into the nearby woods.

Amidst the chaos, Mrs. Vann was able to offer a detailed description of the assailant to the nearby farmers that had gathered upon hearing the commotion on the McLaughlin property. From here, the farmers disbanded to search for Bentley under the light of the full moon. Before daybreak, the entire local community had been stirred into a frenzy and launched into a county-wide manhunt for Bentley. Almost immediately, the search party detected a distinct set of tracks: traditional footprints marked with the presence of a large toe making indentations in the ground. Members of the community tied this set of footprints to Bentley; it was apparently common knowledge that Bentley had worn through his shoes to the point that his toes protruded into the ground. Bentley was eventually found and returned to the property on the grounds that “he knew something about the deed”. He immediately denied that he was wearing the shoes that pointed towards him as the culprit, and also denied being near the Vanns as they moved onto the McLaughlin property. However, reporters described Bentley as “dreadfully nervous” while being questioned, which was a surefire way to cast any doubt on his innocence among the mob.

Almost immediately after his capture, Bentley was arrested and called to an inquest near the scene of the crime by A.M. Spruell, who was a local Justice of the Peace and a Notary Public. After examination of Vann’s body and testimony from witnesses that were around the area, the jury of several citizens determined that Bentley was guilty of murdering Vann on the night of August 1st, 1901. In a rapid-fire manner, Justice Spruell launched a preliminary trial where Mrs. Vann, local medical examiners, and members of the search party all attested to Bentley’s identity as the murderer. Whereas in previous instances Bentley would have most likely been lynched on the spot, 1901 was a pivotal year in regard to Alabama’s Constitution and stance towards lynching. In Montgomery, constitutional delegates and anti-lynching advocates were negotiating amendments to the new Constitution that had to do with these acts of extrajudicial violence. Anti-lynching advocates saw sheriffs and other local agents as the first line of defense against lynching, and the new Constitution would eventually make sheriffs responsible for lynchings in their county to provide an incentive to get ahead of the mob. The Sheriff of St. Clair County, James L. North, was dealing with another high-profile case in the capture of Jim Brown, and a tension existed between the pro-lynching citizens of the county and the Sheriff’s priorities to deliver justice through the court system. This is notable, as it helped explain why Bentley probably received a mirage of a trial (but a trial nonetheless), as well as an explanation for his fate at the hands of the mob. 

Around noon on August 2nd, 1901, the preliminary trial adjourned for dinner and Bentley was placed in the custody of the deputies G. W. Little and J. J. Obar. Securely fastened with a rope, it was reported that the deputies pressured him into confessing to his crimes, citing that “the evidence against him [Bentley] was very strong.” Bentley proceeded to confess, but not to the story promulgated by Mrs. Vann and the witnesses — instead, Bentley confessed to being cursed at by Vann and his family, to which he threw a rock and struck Mr. Vann in the forehead. Bentley did not comment on the alleged assault of Mrs. Vann whatsoever, and consistently asked if he was going to receive a full trial. Unfortunately, this would not be the case. The News reported that shortly after the confession was made, a single gunshot was heard near the McLaughlin home. Out of nowhere, a mob of forty appeared to disarm and restrain the deputies and take Bentley into their custody. The Anniston Star suggested that Bentley’s life may have been spared had he not attempted to assault Mrs. Vann, but “the cowardly manner in which the deed was committed enraged the mob beyond restraint”. In the rear of the McLaughlin property near the banks of the East Cahaba river, Charles Bentley was put to death by the bloodthirsty group. All of the men amidst the forty tied a three-eighth inch thick rope around his neck and hoisted him over a tree limb; at this point, Bentley began to pray and “plea for mercy” as “he then knew his time had come”. Eventually, he was strangled until he hanged dead from the tree, prompting “a mighty shout” from the mob. What happened next remains in dispute — many newspapers, including The New York Times, reported the body as being “riddled with bullets”. However, The Birmingham News’ account of the incident notes that the only gunshot fired was the signal shot used to unite the mob on the McLaughlin property. Out of a fear that the relatively thin rope holding Bentley up would break, the mob tied him to the tree and then dispersed back into their community. 

Bentley’s body remained tied to the tree for a lengthy period of time following his death, drawing in visitors from both St. Clair and Jefferson County to the McLaughlin property. In an attempt to deliver a verdict and not run afoul of Sheriff North, Justice Spruell sought to put together a jury to deliver a post-mortem verdict of Bentley’s guiltiness. However, when trying to put together a jury based on the crowd that had gathered to see Bentley’s body, he could only find two citizens of St. Clair County that would be willing to serve — the rest were visitors from neighboring counties looking for the entertainment value of a lynching. According to the News, the verdict given was expected to read as Bentley “came to death at the hands of men unknown to the jury”, granting a shield of anonymity to the mob that hanged him. Jefferson County law enforcement rejected the case “with a sigh of relief” when pressed by Spruell, leaving it to St. Clair County officials to pursue any charges for the mob that murdered Charles Bentley.

The lynching of Bentley was brought to the attention of Governor Jelks, who promptly notified Judge Pelham of the Seventh Judicial Circuit. As St. Clair County was already dealing with the tensions of the Jim Brown case, Jelks suggested that a grand jury be convened to investigate the lynching at the same time as Jim Brown’s trial. This trial would be set to begin in roughly two weeks on August 19, 1901; however, this did not bring immediate justice to the case of Charles Bentley. It was not until November 30, 1901 that anyone was formally arrested for the lynching of Bentley; on this day, local sawmill owner James B. King was arrested on the aforementioned charges of murder brought forward by the grand jury. Out of the forty, he was the only one charged with participating in the crime — The Anniston Star writes that “Sheriff North...who repulsed the mob at Ashville was instrumental at securing the indictment against King”, suggesting that the belief in local law enforcement as a barrier against the extrajudicial violence of lynching was not misplaced.