Thousands of black people were victims of lynching in the United States between 1877 and 1950, as racial terrorism intended to intimidate black people and enforce racial hierarchy and segregation. After the Civil War, violent resistance to equal rights for African Americans led to fatal violence against black women, men, and children accused of violating social customs, engaging in interracial relationships, or committing crimes, and community leaders who spoke against this violence were often targeted by mobs. Racial lynching became a public and notorious form of subordination frequently tolerated or supported by law enforcement and elected officials, with white mobs often acting with impunity, sometimes after victims were taken from jails by officials required to protect them. Many victims were never recorded by name, but more than 50 lynchings have been documented in Missouri, including at least three in Greene County. On Good Friday, April 13, 1906, Springfield and Greene County had a thriving population of African American professionals, business owners, and community leaders, but by the early hours of Easter Sunday the city was overwhelmed by hate and violence after a false allegation that Horace B. Duncan and Fred Coker had assaulted a white woman. A lynch mob formed, the two men were taken to the city jail for protection, and William Allen, a young black man, was already there. The mob broke into the jail, took Duncan and Coker to the city square, and hanged them from the Gottfried Tower, an iron structure topped with a replica of the Statue of Liberty. The mob then returned to the jail, brought out Allen, and lynched him as well. By Easter Sunday morning, only a pile of ashes and the men's burned bodies remained as thousands watched the public spectacle lynchings. Fearing further violence, many African Americans left the city, some never to return. A grand jury later indicted eighteen men involved, but although one man was brought to trial, no one was ever convicted of the murders.
