Lynching: Albemarle DA Adds to History of John Henry James' Extrajudicial Murder
In a crowded courtroom yesterday in Albemarle, charges against John Henry James, a Black man murdered by an angry white mob in 1898 after being accused of rape by Julia Hotepp without due process, was tossed by a Judge.
Albemarle County Commonwealth’s Attorney Jim Hingeley, who is involved in racial reconciliation work in the Charlottesville area, introduced a motion in May to overturn his office’s 125-year-old indictment of John Henry James for the assault of Hotopp and clear James’ criminal record. James’ lynching is documented as one of the most notorious in Virginia’s history.
The actions were “directed at Black people and was frequently tolerated or even supported by law enforcement and elected officials illustrating the failure of the criminal justice system to afford black people equal justice under law,” wrote Tim Fillmon on lynching in 2021.
“We believe from the historical record that the charge was false that it was unjustly brought. We need to confront the history of racial terror lynching in our own community.
If we don’t confront racial injustice … it impairs our ability to repair that legacy and to build a more just future,” Hingeley said standing outside the courthouse yesterday.
Approximately 4,400 Black men, and some women, were the victims of lynchings in the U.S. from 1877 and 1950, according to the Equal Justice Initiative (EPI). In April 2018, the organization opened a museum in Alabama to memorialize lynching victims and focus on racial injustice in America. Much of the history focused on at the museum is not taught in American schools and visitors are stunned to learn the detailed history of racial injustice.
Racial terror lynching and murder that included public hanging and burning at the stake was a public way of demonstrating intimidation on Black Americans before during and after the Civil War. White mobs took violent action against those they deemed guilty without due process as a means of social control. Lack of due process in matters of allegations against Black men continues present day as current Innocence Project cases reveal.
According to the National Registry of Exonerations, Black men represent 59% of those found to be wrongly convicted.
The journalist Ida Wells Barnett led an effort to publicize the injustice of lynching and stop the practice after the 1892 murders of Black businessman and People’s Grocery owner Thomas Moss and two of his employees, Calvin McDowell and Will Stewart, by a white mob in Memphis.
Outside the Albemarle courthouse there is a historic marker detailing the story of what happened to John Henry James.
➡️ SUBSCRIBE TO BLACK VIRGINIA NEWS. “One had better die fighting against injustice than die like a dog or a rat in a trap.” —Ida Wells. 👨🏽💻 Send your press releases, submissions, tips, pitches, comments and corrections to BlackVirginiaNews@gmail.com.