Lynching of Joe Winters

Joe Winters was a 20-year-old African-American man who was lynched by a mob in Conroe, Montgomery County, Texas, on May 20, 1922. The United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary later recorded the killing as the 27th of 61 lynchings documented in the United States during 1922.

According to available accounts, the events began when a 14-year-old girl was allegedly assaulted at approximately 4:00 PM on Friday, May 19, 1920 [as recorded in the source], near Leonidas, Texas. A man named Rudolph Manning was initially detained as a suspect and was smuggled to Houston, Texas by his employer, along with other local men including a former sheriff of Montgomery County. The sitting Montgomery County Sheriff, identified only as Sheriff Hicks, brought Manning back to Conroe and then to Leonidas, where the alleged victim stated that he was not her attacker.

A large crowd subsequently gathered in Conroe amid rumors that a new suspect, Joe Winters, had taken a horse near Waukegan, Texas. Winters was reportedly spotted about two miles from Waukegan while traveling toward Youens, Texas. Police arrested him at approximately 2:00 PM on Saturday, May 20, 1922, and transported him to Leonidas, where the alleged victim identified him.

In the period following the initial assault allegation, local newspapers had reportedly been calling for a crowd to gather. By the time of Winters's identification, thousands of people had assembled in Conroe. When Sheriff Hicks returned to Conroe with Winters in custody, he was overpowered by the mob, which seized Winters. The mob chained him to an iron post on the courthouse square, stacked oil boxes around him, and set the pile alight. Winters was burned alive while proclaiming his innocence.

The case was reported at the time by outlets including the Conroe Courier and The Chicago Defender, and was later referenced in NAACP publications and in United States Senate Judiciary Committee hearing records concerning federal anti-lynching legislation. No individuals were identified by name as members of the mob, and no one is recorded as having been charged in connection with the killing.