Grant County Jail

In Marion, Indiana on August 7, 1930, the horrific lynching of Abram Smith and Thomas Shipp exemplified the deep-rooted racism that was still present in Indiana at the time. On the night of August 6, Shipp, age 18, and Smith, age 19, convinced 16-year-old James Cameron to participate in an armed car holdup. As the three African American teenagers approached the targeted car, Cameron recognized the man inside as Claude Deeter, one of his shoeshine customers. Cameron’s connection to Deeter inspired him to leave the scene. He made it two blocks before he heard gunshots [1]. Shipp and Smith shot Deeter with his fiancée, Mary Ball, still in the car. Shipp, Smith, and Cameron were charged for the murder of Deeter and the alleged rape of Ball. However, Ball later retracted her claim that the men had raped her [2].

The details of the crime spread quickly throughout Indiana. White people from all over the state began to arrive at the Grant County Jail in Marion. Deeter died that same afternoon, and the fury towards Smith, Shipp, and Cameron fueled the formation of a mob outside of the jail. The mob requested the three young men be handed over to them, but the Sheriff denied the demand. The mob broke into the jail by using sledgehammers to break down the door [3]. Shipp was the first man to be forcibly removed from his cell. He was beaten and hanged from the window bars of the jail. Next, the crowd dragged Smith to the courthouse square, about a block from the jail, and hanged him from a tree in the courthouse square [4]. The violent mob then moved Shipp’s body from the jail to the courthouse, where they hung it next to Smith’s body. Moments before Cameron’s murder, with a noose around his neck and a mob at his heels, a voice in the crowd quieted the mob by yelling that Cameron was not involved in the shooting of Deeter and the accused rape of Ball. Thanks to the anonymous savior, Cameron survived the horrific night [5].

Photographer Lawrence Beitler captured an iconic image of the lynching and later sold it as a postcard [6]. The photograph shows the hanging bodies of Smith and Shipp while a crowd of white men and women smile, laugh, and point towards the bloodied bodies hanging above them. Among the lynching cases remembered by the Memorial for Peace and Justice, which opened in Alabama in 2018, the murder of Shipp and Smith is especially important in the nation’s history. The Marion lynching in 1930 was later than most other lynchings in the United States. It is especially shocking that the lynching occurred in Indiana, defying the notion that such horrific racism and violence was limited to the Deep South. The lynching’s photographic evidence illustrates the racism and intolerance that was still present in Indiana less than 100 years ago. This event was so culturally significant that it inspired a poem Strange Fruit by schoolteacher Abel Meeropol [7]. The poem has been performed musically by famous artists such as Billie Holiday, Nina Simone, and others [8].

The only survivor of the lynching, James Cameron, spent four years in prison, where he began his memoir, “A Time of Terror.” Cameron dedicated his life to informing and educating Americans on lynching and racism, and founded several NAACP chapters in Indiana [9]. He founded America’s Black Holocaust Museum, which opened in 2003 in Milwaukee. He died in 2006, at age 92 [10].

In 2018, Grant County commissioners and a group from nearby Huntington University proposed the idea of a memorial for Abram Smith and Thomas Shipp. After the idea was proposed, Shipp’s family voiced their opposition due to concerns about vandalization to the memorial. Smith’s family also opposed, stating “the only people it should really matter to is the family.” [11].

Grant County Jail still stands proudly in downtown Marion, but it no longer serves are the county’s jail. In 1990, it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places for its architectural and political significance at the turn of the twentieth century [12]. A visit to the site today offers no clues to the harrowing lynching that occurred on August 7, 1930.

[1] Mark Johnson, “A Story That Needs to Be Told,” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, JS Online, July 8, 2005, https://archive.is/20070318085613/http:/www.jsonline.com/news/metro/jul05/339097.asp
[2] Rozen-Wheeler, Adam. “Marion, Indiana Lynching (1930),”Black Past, October 19, 2017, www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/marion-indiana-lynching-1930/.
[3] Talbot, Peter. “Confronting Truth: Marion, Indiana Struggles to Face History of 1930 Lynching.” Indiana Daily Student, 10 Dec. 2018, www.idsnews.com/article/2018/12/confronting-truth-marion-indiana-struggles-to-face-history-of-1930-lynching.
[4] Talbot, Peter. “Confronting Truth: Marion, Indiana Struggles to Face History of 1930 Lynching.”
[5] “The Lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith, 1930.” Rare Historical Photos, March 16, 2014, rarehistoricalphotos.com/lynching-thomas-shipp-abram-smith-1930/.
[6] Dawn Mitchell and Maureen C. Gilmer. “Last-Known Lynching in Indiana Included in National Memorial for Peace and Justice.” The Indianapolis Star, IndyStar, 26 Apr. 2018, www.indystar.com/story/news/history/retroindy/2018/04/26/last-known-lynching-indiana-included-national-memorial-peace-and-justice/553199002/.
[7] Poletika, Author Nicole. “Strange Fruit: The 1930 Marion Lynching and the Woman Who Tried to Prevent It.” The Indiana History Blog, May 15, 2018, blog.history.in.gov/strange-fruit-the-1930-marion-lynching-and-the-woman-who-tried-to-prevent-it/.
[8] Rozen-Wheeler, Adam. “MARION, INDIANA LYNCHING (1930).”
[9] Talbot, Peter. “Confronting Truth: Marion, Indiana Struggles to Face History of 1930 Lynching.”
[10] Dawn Mitchell and Maureen C. Gilmer. “Last-Known Lynching in Indiana Included in National Memorial for Peace and Justice.”
[11] Press, by: Associated. “Family of Grant County Lynching Victims against Proposed Memorial - WISH-TV: Indianapolis News: Indiana Weather: Indiana Traffic.” WISH, June 7, 2018, www.wishtv.com/news/family-of-grant-county-lynching-victims-against-proposed-memorial/.
[12] “Grant County Jail and Sheriff’s Residence,” National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination Form, United States Department of the Interior Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service, October 1990.

Student Authors: Gwyneth Harris and Teagan Hayes
Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson
Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey

PHOTO & VIDEO:
Grant County Jail and Sheriff's Residence, attributed to Nyttend, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Grant_County_Jail_and_Sheriff%27s_Residence.jpg