Lynching of Jim Early

Jim Early — also recorded in some sources as Thomas "Earlie" — was a 25-year-old African-American man who was lynched near Plantersville, in Grimes County, Texas, in May 1922. According to the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, his killing was recorded as the 24th of 61 lynchings documented in the United States during 1922.

Early had been raised in nearby Montgomery County, Texas, but had reportedly moved to West Texas several years before the events of May 1922. He had returned to the region shortly before his death. On Monday, May 15, 1922, officers arrested Early after reports that a white girl had been heard screaming that she was being attacked. He was placed in a jail in Anderson, Texas. Early was described in contemporaneous accounts as a "half-wit." Being familiar with the jail's locks, he escaped custody on May 16, 1922.

Following his escape, an official posse was formed to search for him. However, a mob caught Early and lynched him on the night of May 17, 1922, or in the early morning hours of May 18, 1922. His body was subsequently found hanging from a large oak tree.

The case remains documented as an unsolved lynching, consistent with the vast majority of racial-terror lynchings recorded in the United States during this period, which rarely resulted in prosecutions. The killing is documented by the Lynching in Texas project (Sam Houston State University) among lynchings recorded in Grimes County.