Before you continue
This case involves sexual violence. Casepin presents the record in neutral, non-graphic language. Choose whether to continue.
Unsolved case · 1918
The short answer
George Taylor, an African-American man accused of raping a white woman near Rolesville, North Carolina, was abducted from police custody and lynched by a masked mob on November 5, 1918 — the only documented lynching in Wake County, North Carolina.
The coverage index
No one's coverage is attached to this file yet.
Know great coverage of this case?
A documentary, a podcast episode, a careful long-form video. Suggest it and an editor will review it before it appears here.
Suggest coverage for Lynching of George TaylorThe case file
On October 30, 1918, Ruby Rogers was at her home near Rolesville, North Carolina, while her husband, Leonidus "Lee" Rogers, a prominent local farmer, was away on business about 2 miles distant. Rogers later stated that an African-American man entered her home, threatened her with a knife, and sexually assaulted her before fleeing. A physician who examined her afterward confirmed that an assault had occurred.
In the days that followed, local police brought at least three African-American men to Rogers for identification as possible suspects. She did not identify any of them, and each was released. As tensions rose among white residents of Rolesville, law enforcement intervened to stop a mob attempting to seize one of the released suspects.
On November 5, 1918, police received information that George Taylor, an African-American man, had visited a friend in the Rolesville area on the day of the assault. He was arrested in nearby Wilson, North Carolina, and brought to the Rogers farm for identification. Rogers initially stated that Taylor was not her assailant, but after he was asked to repeat certain phrases she said had been used during the attack, she identified him as the man who had assaulted her.
Police placed Taylor in a vehicle to transport him to Raleigh, the Wake County seat, to begin the arrest process. Before leaving the Rogers property, the vehicle was stopped by four masked, armed men, who forcibly removed Taylor and took him into nearby woods. His body was discovered the next morning near the woods. According to press accounts, he had been severely injured and tortured before his death, shot more than 100 times, and hanged upside down by his feet from a tree; his back and sides had been cut with a knife after death.
Authorities conducted an inquiry into the lynching, interviewing more than 30 people, both Black and white, from the community. Consistent with the pattern in many lynching cases of the era, no suspects were ever publicly named and no one was charged in connection with Taylor's death. The Durham Herald reported that witnesses were "displaying either unparalleled ignorance of the doings in their community, or are champion forgetters."
The case was described in contemporaneous press coverage as a "genuine old-fashioned lynching" and is identified as the only known lynching to have occurred in Wake County, North Carolina. In 2018, on the 100th anniversary of his death, George Taylor was publicly honored in a commemorative event.
4 dated entries · 1918–2018
Ruby Rogers is assaulted in her home near Rolesville, North Carolina, while her husband is away; a physician later confirms the assault occurred.
George Taylor is arrested in Wilson, North Carolina, brought to the Rogers farm, and identified by Ruby Rogers as her assailant. He is abducted from police custody by four masked armed men before reaching Raleigh.
Taylor's body is found near woods close to the Rogers property; he had been shot more than 100 times, tortured, and hanged upside down from a tree.
George Taylor is honored on the 100th anniversary of his lynching.
1 named in this file
Victims first. Every legal label is set from public records and court outcomes, not from the prose.
African-American man lynched on November 5, 1918, near Rolesville, North Carolina, after being accused of assaulting Ruby Rogers; no one was ever charged in his death.[3]
3 cited
Coverage is not a source: every fact in this file rests on the records below.
Pressdrive.google.comAccessed Jul 7, 2026
Presseji.orgAccessed Jul 7, 2026
EncyclopedicWikipediaAccessed Jul 7, 2026
Trust
Are you family of someone named in this file? Corrections and removal requests from victims’ families are prioritized.
Near this case
Credit: James Willamor·CC BY-SA 3.0·SourceSOLVEDListenHedingham neighborhood, Raleigh, North Carolina · 2020s
On October 13, 2022, a 15-year-old shot and killed five people and injured others across the Hedingham neighborhood of Raleigh, North Carolina, before being cornered by police and sustaining a self-inflicted gunshot wound; he later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life without parole.
SOLVEDListenOxford, North Carolina, United States · 1970s
Henry "Dickie" Marrow, a 23-year-old Black Army veteran, was beaten and fatally shot outside a shop in Oxford, North Carolina, in May 1970. An all-white jury acquitted the three men charged with his murder, sparking protests, arson, a curfew, and an 18-month boycott of white businesses that led to desegregation of the town's public facilities.
Credit: Screengrab from video here·Editorial use·SourceONGOINGListenChapel Hill, North Carolina, United States · 2010s
Faith Hedgepeth, a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill undergraduate, was beaten to death in her Chapel Hill apartment in September 2012. In September 2021, Chapel Hill police arrested Miguel Salguero-Olivares on a first-degree murder charge in her death, and prosecutors later added burglary and sexual-offense charges; the case remains active as of the most recent reporting.
Credit: Tthrail·CC BY-SA 4.0·SourceUNSOLVEDListenNear Macon Road bridge over the Wolf River, Memphis, Tennessee · 1917
In May 1917, Ell Persons, a Black woodcutter accused of the rape and decapitation of 15-year-old Antoinette Rappel near Memphis, Tennessee, was seized from custody by a mob and burned alive before a crowd of about 5,000. No one was ever charged in either death, and the lynching contributed to the founding of the Memphis NAACP.
Credit: Uyvsdi·Public domain·SourceUNSOLVEDListenBridge over the North Canadian River near Okemah, Okfuskee County, Oklahoma · 1911
Laura Nelson and her teenage son L. D. Nelson, an African-American mother and son, were seized from the Okfuskee County jail in Okemah, Oklahoma, on the night of May 24, 1911, by a mob of white men and hanged from a bridge over the North Canadian River the following morning. No one was ever identified or charged in connection with the killings.
Credit: Unknown author·Public domain·SourceUNSOLVEDListenNewberry, Alachua County, Florida · 1916
In August 1916, a mob of about 200 people in Newberry, Florida, took six Black residents from jail and hanged them from a single tree after a Black man, Boisey Long, killed a white constable attempting to arrest him; no one was ever arrested for the killings.
