In the quiet early hours of a Wednesday morning in August of 1926, a sense of duty called upon Deputy Sheriff James Dooley, a male Caucasian and reportedly one of the most popular officers in Lafayette County, Arkansas. He set out to serve a warrant on a railroad worker named Charles Powell, an African-American man, on charges of beating his wife. Powell was living in a railway car on a sidetrack of the Cotton Belt Railroad, a place that would soon become the scene of a fatal confrontation.
When Deputy Dooley approached the railroad car, the situation quickly escalated. Powell, described as a man who had previously resisted arrest, drew a pistol. He fired at Dooley, striking him in the chest. Despite being wounded, Dooley managed to return fire but missed his target. Powell fired again, this time hitting Dooley directly in the heart. As the deputy fell, Powell fired three more times into his body before fleeing the scene. The violent encounter left Deputy Dooley dead and ignited a fervent manhunt for his killer.
The search for Charles Powell was swift and intense, with posses and bloodhounds scouring the area. He was eventually discovered hiding in a dense thicket and was apprehended that same afternoon. News of his capture spread rapidly, and as officers attempted to transport him to the jail in Lewisville, a mob of enraged citizens, estimated to be between 150 and 500 strong, intercepted them. Overpowering the lawmen, the mob took custody of Powell. They dragged him to a tree roughly seven miles south of Lewisville, where they hanged him and riddled his body with bullets, delivering their own brutal form of justice on the very same day that Deputy Sheriff James Dooley lost his life. No arrests were ever made in connection with the lynching of Charles Powell.
