Lynching of George Gay

On December 11, 1922, George Gay was lynched in Streetman, a town straddling the border of Freestone and Navarro counties in Texas. He was accused of assaulting a young girl. According to the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, this was the 60th of 61 recorded lynchings in the United States during 1922.

The lynching occurred amid heightened racial tension in the region. Just months earlier, on May 6, 1922, three Black men were lynched in Kirvin, Texas, eight miles from Streetman, over allegations of murdering a 17-year-old girl. On May 26, 1922, another Black man, Jesse Thomas, was lynched in Waco, Texas, 60 miles away. Sources note that in all these cases, there was little to no evidence against those killed.

In Streetman, 20-year-old Florine Grayson, a teacher at Birdston school and daughter of Mrs. W.S. Grayson, was attacked at 6:45 AM on Monday, December 11, 1922. An assailant threw a sack over her head and stuffed her mouth with cloth; she managed to free herself and call for help. George Gay, a 25-year-old Black man who lived 200 yards from the Grayson home, was seized at 10:45 AM. He reportedly had a piece of cloth matching the gag used in the attack. He was brought before Florine Grayson, but she could not positively identify him as her attacker. Authorities requested that bloodhounds be brought from Huntsville to help locate the actual assailant.

As word of the attack and Gay's detention spread, a crowd estimated at 2,000 people gathered, demanding action. Sheriff Horace Mayo of Freestone County attempted to move Gay to a safer location, sensing the situation was escalating beyond his control. Before the transfer could occur, approximately 250 vehicles blocked the sheriff's route, and the mob seized George Gay. At 2:50 PM, he was chained to a tree and shot more than 300 times.

In the aftermath, a second man, Roger Payne, was implicated in the attack on Florine Grayson. Separately, another Black man was nearly lynched after being mistaken by the mob for Payne; he was released after proving he was not the person sought.

George Gay's case is memorialized at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama, which displays 805 hanging steel rectangles representing U.S. counties where documented lynchings occurred, including the names of victims. Memorial organizers have expressed hope that communities such as Freestone or Navarro County will claim their corresponding steel monument and install it locally.