Lynching of Ed Johnson

On January 23, 1906, Nevada Taylor was attacked while walking home to the cottage at Chattanooga's Forest Hills Cemetery, where she lived with her father, the cemetery caretaker. She lost consciousness during the assault and later stated only that her assailant was a Black man who approached from behind and used a leather strap. A doctor determined she had been sexually assaulted. Hamilton County Sheriff Joseph F. Shipp led the search, arresting James Broaden the next morning and Ed Johnson the following day after a report that he had been seen with a leather strap near the streetcar stop. The arrests occurred amid heightened local racial tension following a series of alleged crimes attributed to Black suspects in December 1905, including the killing of a constable by Floyd Westfield.

A mob of roughly 1,500 people gathered at the jail demanding the prisoners be handed over; Shipp and Judge Samuel D. McReynolds had already moved Johnson and Broaden to Nashville, and the crowd was persuaded to disperse. Johnson was indicted on January 26 and tried beginning February 6. Taylor testified she believed, but would not swear, that Johnson was her attacker. Defense witnesses placed Johnson elsewhere at the time of the crime and suggested a prosecution witness had been motivated by a reward. The jury, split 8–4 toward conviction, ultimately convicted Johnson, and he was sentenced to death.

Attorneys Noah Parden and Styles Hutchins took up an appeal after Johnson's original counsel declined. State appeals failed, but Parden's federal habeas corpus petition led a district judge to suggest a stay from the governor, which was granted. Parden then traveled to Washington, D.C., and secured a Supreme Court review; on March 19, 1906, the Court ordered a second stay of execution.

That same evening, with Sheriff Shipp having excused most jail guards, a mob broke into the jail, seized Johnson, and hanged him from the Walnut Street Bridge, shooting him dozens of times as he hung. A note addressed to Justice John Marshall Harlan was left on his body. The lynching prompted federal intervention: President Theodore Roosevelt directed Secret Service involvement, and the Supreme Court itself tried Shipp and others for contempt in United States v. Shipp, the only criminal trial ever conducted by the Court. In 1909, Shipp and five others were found guilty and sentenced to 60–90 days in prison; three co-defendants were acquitted. Johnson's attorneys were threatened and left Tennessee permanently.

In February 2000, a Hamilton County judge vacated Johnson's conviction, finding his trial had been unfair due to an all-white jury and the refusal to move the trial venue. A memorial to Johnson was dedicated near the lynching site in September 2021.