In the winter of 1906, an African American man named Henry Davis became the victim of mob violence in Annapolis, Maryland. Davis, who was also known by the aliases William Davis and Henry Chambers, was a laborer with a noticeable limp due to frostbite, which earned him the nickname 'Toe and Foot'. His life took a grim turn after he was accused of assaulting a white woman, Mrs. John Reid, near her husband's store in Anne Arundel County.
Following the accusation, a manhunt ensued, and Davis was arrested several days later on December 16th and positively identified by an eyewitness.
While incarcerated at the Annapolis jail, talk of a lynching grew within the community, prompting the local sheriff to express concern for his prisoner's safety. Despite these fears, on the night of December 21, a mob of masked men, estimated to be between 25 and 100 strong, descended upon the jail. The mob, after a failed attempt to trick the guards, used stolen tools to break down the jailhouse door. Overpowering the few guards on duty, the mob seized Henry Davis from his cell with little resistance.
The captors dragged Davis through the streets, beating and kicking him along the way. His ordeal ended on the banks of College Creek, where he was hanged from a tree. The brutality of his death was compounded by the fact that the mob then riddled his body with over 100 bullets. In the aftermath, his body was left under the tree and became a spectacle for hundreds of onlookers.
Despite the public nature of the lynching and the large number of perpetrators, no one was ever arrested or charged for the murder of Henry Davis. A coroner's jury was convened, but their verdict concluded that he had died at the hands of 'persons unknown'. A subsequent jury of inquest also failed to identify any of the individuals responsible for his death. The case remains a stark example of racial terror and a failure of the justice system, with Davis's murderers never being held accountable for their actions.
