William P. Harris

In the late autumn of 1912, the life of Sheriff William P. Harris, a 47-year-old White/Caucasian male, was abruptly ended in Hernando, Mississippi. The series of events leading to his death began over a legal matter involving a $400 debt owed by a local man. Sheriff Harris had attempted to seize cotton from the man's farm to settle the debt but was met with resistance from the man and his two sons.

Several days after the initial confrontation, on November 25, 1912, Sheriff Harris returned ...