Lynching of Wade Thomas
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| Part of Red Summer | |
 Newspaper coverage of the Lynching of Wade Thomas in Jonesboro, Craighead County, Arkansas | |
 | |
| Date | December 26, 1920 |
|---|---|
| Location | City of Jonesboro's public square |
| Coordinates | 35°50′17″N 90°42′18″W / 35.838149°N 90.70495°W |
| Participants | White mob in Jonesboro, Arkansas |
| Deaths | 1 |
On December 26, 1920, an African-American man named Wade Thomas was lynched in Jonesboro, Arkansas, by a white mob. The mob seized Thomas from the Jonesboro jail after he was charged with shooting a local police patrolman, Aylmer Ragland.
The state of Arkansas had been on edge after the deadly Elaine massacre, in which perhaps as many as 237 Black people were killed between September 30 and October 1, 1919. It was "by far the deadliest racial confrontation in Arkansas history and possibly the bloodiest racial conflict in the history of the United States."[1] On December 25, 1920, police raided a dice game. During the raid gun fire broke out and Patrolman Aylmer Ragland was killed.[2] Thomas was later arrested at Hoxie, Arkansas and brought to Jonesboro.
Lynching
Members of the white community quietly assembled in Jonesboro until there was a mob of about 400 people. The police initially attempted to protect Thomas; Jonesboro Police Chief Gus Craig and Mayor Gordon Frierson had barricaded the jail.[3] When the mob broke through the two surrendered Wade Thomas without a struggle because, as Mayor Frierson later recalled, "When the mob opened the door, the first half-a-dozen men standing there were leading citizens — businessmen, leaders of their churches and the community."[3] Other Black prisoners were left alone; only Thomas was seized paraded around the town and then hanged from a telegraph pole near where Ragland was shot.[2] His body was then riddled with bullets.[citation needed]