Anderson University students dug into the story of one of Anderson County s known lynching victims. Their work was made public as the traveling Anderson Area Remembrance Coalition s sculpture took its
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A local group wants to remember five victims of lynching in Anderson County. These are their stories.
Alongside information from the local reconciliation group, the Independent Mail searched newspaper archives to find information about the victims.
Caitlin Herrington, Anderson Independent Mail
Published
4:59 pm UTC May. 3, 2021
A group of Anderson County residents is working with the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) to remember victims of lynchings in the area.
The five people identified through the project are Edward Sullivan, Elbert Harris, John Laddison, Reuben Elrod and Willis Jackson, according to organizer Stuart Sprague. We would like to memorialize these men who were unjustly taken out, whipped, beaten, hanged, shot with bullets and, in every case, no one was ever held accountable, Sprague said.
Age unknown
Reports from the July 4, 1903, issue of the Yorkville Enquirer and July 15, 1903, issue of the Keowee Courier
Published
10:40 am UTC May. 3, 2021
Reuben Elrod died on Tuesday, June 30, 1903, when a group of white men shot him at his home about one mile from Piedmont, according to an Anderson Intelligencer article.
During some kind of commotion where a group of men came to his home, possibly searching for woman known to be there, a shot was fired through the weatherboarding of the house at random, but the ball struck old Reuben in the throats and struck.
An article on the killing of Reuben Elrod from the July 4, 1903 issue of the Yorkville Enquirer.Courtesy of Newspapers.com