This year marks the 100th anniversary of the lynching of Mary Turner.I have come across many horrific tales of white violence against the Black body, but none as gruesome and as bloody as that of young Mary Turner.
On 17 May, 1918, in Lowndes County, Georgia, a Black woman called Mary Turner was publicly lynched by a white mob. Mary’s husband, Hayes Turner, had been lynched moments earlier by the same mob, for something that was never proven.
Her husband was arrested in connection with the shooting and killing of Hampton Smith, a white slaver master and plantation owner for whom the couple had worked, and the wounding of his wife.
Sidney Johnson, a Black man, apparently killed Smith because he was fed up with the slave owners abuse. Unable to find Johnson, the white killers lynched eight other Blacks instead, including Hayes Turner (Mary's husband).
Being the loyal and loving Black woman that she was, Mary decided to risk her life and that of her unborn child, by staging a public protest and vowing to have those responsible for killg her husband arrested.
The blood-thirsty white mob turned to her and hanged her by her feet, poured gasoline and oil on her and set fire to her body. One white man sliced her open and Mary’s baby plunged to the ground with a little cry.
As if to confirm the depth of white evil and their insatiable lust for Black blood-the white mob (which included man and women) stomped the baby to death and sprayed bullets into Mary.
At the time of her lynching, Mary was only twenty one and eight months pregnant. We must never forget what they did to her because they are still doing it to us today.

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