On June 26, 1919, as many as 10,000 whites gathered in a field just out-side Ellisville, Mississippi, to watch a bound, exhausted, and wounded black man named John Hartfield as he was hoisted up the branch of a giant sweet gum tree. Vendors sold flags, trinkets, and souvenir photographs. Local politicians delivered speeches. Young boys crowded in the tree to look down at the wild-eyed, screaming Hartfield. It was a country fair, political rally, and public murder rolled into one.
