Lynching of Paul Reed and Will Cato

In late July 1904, the farmhouse of Henry Hodges, a white farmer near Statesboro, Georgia, burned down. The bodies of Hodges, his wife Claudia, and their three young children were found in the ashes the next day, and evidence at the scene — including shoes, a knife, and matching calico shoe-lace material — led investigators to a Black tenant farmer, Paul Reed. Reed and his wife, Harriett, were arrested. While in custody, Harriett Reed gave a statement implicating her husband and a neighbor, Will Cato, describing a botched robbery attempt that escalated into the killing of the parents and, later, the children, with the house set on fire to destroy evidence.

News of the confession spread quickly, and regional papers ran sensationalized coverage suggesting sexual assault had occurred, despite money and jewelry being found undisturbed near the victims. Reed gave multiple, shifting accounts implicating various other named individuals and an alleged secret society called the "Before Day Club," which authorities later concluded probably did not exist. A coroner's jury indicted Reed and Cato, and Superior Court Judge Alexander Daley set a trial date of August 15, 1904. Amid widespread public talk of lynching, Georgia Governor Joseph M. Terrell dispatched militia under Captain Robert M. Hitch to protect the defendants. Reed and Cato were tried separately and convicted within minutes of jury deliberation on August 15 and 16, and were sentenced to be hanged on September 9.

Before the men could be transported to Savannah for safekeeping after their trials, a crowd gathered at the Bulloch County Courthouse. Efforts by officials — including Captain Hitch, Judge Daley, Mayor George M. Johnson, the sheriff, and Reverend Harmon Hodges (brother of victim Henry Hodges) — to calm the mob failed, and telephone lines to call for help had been cut. The mob overwhelmed the militia, who had been ordered not to load their weapons, and the sheriff unlocked the room holding Reed and Cato and pointed them out. The men were dragged from the courthouse, taken about a mile outside town, chained to a pine stump, doused with kerosene, and burned to death before a crowd estimated at 100 to 2,500 people. Photographs of the burning and its aftermath were later sold.

In the days following, other acts of violence against African-Americans occurred in Bulloch County, including shootings that left three people dead and a beating of a woman who had recently given birth. National newspapers condemned the lynching. A public inquiry identified participants, including two court bailiffs, but no one was indicted for the killings of Reed and Cato. Captain Hitch and five junior officers were court-martialed for failing to prevent the lynching.