Lynching of David Wyatt

David Wyatt was an African-American educator who had taught for approximately ten years in the predominantly Black town of Brooklyn, Illinois, after earning a master's degree from the University of Michigan and serving as a principal for Black schools in East Carondelet. He was recognized as a community leader and "race educator," active in the Afro-American Teachers Association, and had founded a night school to address adult illiteracy in Brooklyn.

On June 6, 1903, Wyatt traveled to Belleville, Illinois, to seek renewal of his teaching certificate from St. Clair County superintendent Charles Hertel. Hertel refused the renewal, reportedly citing accounts of Wyatt's "extreme cruelty to some of his pupils." According to witness George Fielder, Hertel's assistant, Wyatt responded with a threat before shooting Hertel with a revolver. The gunshot drew a crowd of more than 500 people within fifteen minutes. Police arrived and arrested Wyatt, escorting him through the gathering crowd to the county jail as rumors spread — inaccurately, per the source — that Hertel had died from his wound.

By the evening of June 6, the crowd outside the jail had swelled to an estimated four to five thousand people. Members of the mob armed themselves, in part by purchasing all available revolvers from a local hardware store. Belleville Mayor Frederick John Kern attempted to address the mob from the jailhouse steps but was met with thrown rocks and an attempt to storm the building; he retreated inside. State's Attorney James Farmer and former judge M. W. Schaefer opted against using force, instead suggesting firefighters use hoses on the crowd, but firefighters declined to spray fellow white citizens. Later that night, a group of men and teenage boys broke into the unattended jailhouse, forced open Wyatt's cell, dragged him through the streets, and lynched him from a telephone pole in the town square. His body was set on fire, and after being cut down, souvenirs were reportedly taken from the remains before police removed them to a funeral home. Wyatt's widow claimed his remains the following day.

The lynching drew a range of local and national responses. Belleville's small Black population faced threats and harassment in the aftermath, as reported by the Chicago Tribune, which noted Black residents refused to leave despite the danger. The New York Times covered the event under the headline "Illinois Lynching Horror," describing the threat faced by the city's Black residents. Anti-lynching activist Ida B. Wells was quoted in the Chicago Tribune asserting there was evidence Wyatt had acted in self-defense. Mayor Kern initially placed blame solely on Wyatt but later acknowledged responsibility for the lack of police intervention, citing fears of broader racial violence. Scholars have since analyzed the case as an example of racialized mob violence and the vulnerable position of Black educators in the post-Reconstruction South and Midwest.