Killing of Alonzo Tucker

Alonzo Tucker was an African American man living in Coos Bay, Oregon, where he worked as a bootblack in a barbershop and also owned a gym as a boxer. At the time, the 1900 census recorded only 36 Black residents in Coos County. On September 18, 1902, Tucker was accused of raping a white woman identified in accounts as Mrs. Dennis, and he was reportedly held in jail before escaping.

According to newspaper accounts, two unidentified 12-year-old boys discovered Tucker and began shooting at him with rifles. Local miners pursued and apprehended him while he was hiding inside a store; by that point he had already succumbed to his injuries. The mob briefly considered hanging his body inside the store but instead returned it to the site of the alleged assault near a bridge. His body was shot twice more and then hanged from the 7th Street Bridge, a structure that spanned what is now Golden Field, a high school soccer field in Coos Bay.

A coroner's report attributed Tucker's death to exsanguination from a gunshot wound to the right thigh, indicating he died before his body was hanged. Despite the involvement of multiple identifiable individuals — including, according to local newspapers, the husband of the woman who made the rape accusation — officials concluded that "the deceased came to his death at the hands of parties unknown while resisting arrest for a felony, and that no crime was committed thereby." No charges were ever filed against any member of the mob. Contemporary newspaper coverage described the mob's conduct as "quiet and orderly," and another report stated public opinion held that the killing was "well done." Mrs. Dennis and her family left Coos Bay shortly afterward and relocated to California.

In 1974, the Coos Bay World newspaper interviewed three elderly men who had witnessed the killing as children. One, Martin Steckel, recalled being about seven years old and standing roughly 20 feet from Tucker when he was shot, and stated he did not believe Tucker had committed the assault. The men described Tucker as someone who ran each morning for exercise and would meet a woman near a local cemetery; they said a local doctor came upon the two together, prompting the woman to claim she had been attacked. Steckel recalled Tucker's final words as, "Lord have mercy on a colored man."

In 2020, the Oregon Remembrance Project, the Equal Justice Initiative, and the Coos History Museum held a commemorative event for Tucker, including the collection of soil from sites tied to the killing for display at the museum. A historical marker commemorating Tucker was installed in June 2021.