In 1900, King Martin was arrested and lynched. He was working on for a white family near Kaufman. The teenage girl accused Martin of assault, but waited an entire day to tell her parents.

By the next day, King Martin was with his wife in Terrell.

Over 2,000 people showed up to watch this man die, but the local papers reported they were disappointed, because it was a small enclosure and only 65 people were able to but tickets to see the end of this man’s life.

In 1900 Kaufman County, Texas, assaulting a white girl was the worst crime a Black man could commit or be accused of.

How did it compare with other crimes?

Here are a few other articles from the same year. The first, John Taylor, a Black man, he killed another Black man, and he was given 25 years in prison. The second, Jabe Gardner, a white man, killed a Black man and was given bond.

I looked further to find out what happened with Jabe Gardner, who was awaiting trial in February, 1900.

My search came up empty regarding that trial. In August, 1900 the local paper reported his family was receiving visitors. Then, in 1916 he was buying property in Humble.

America has never had an equal justice system.

It happened again in Kaufman County in 1903.

The lynching of Henry Johnson.

Henry Johnson was accused of assaulting a white woman. He was tried, the entire trial took a little over an hour, found guilty, and then lynched the very next day.

Aside from the numerous lynchings, many which we will likely never know about, there is a history of white men “accidently” killing Black men in Kaufman County.

Accidental murders.

Accidently? While the misfire of a gun seems plausible. The fact that it happened in Kaufman County so many times is likely more than a coincidence.

Jabe Gardner, who “accidently” killed a Black man in 1900 Terrell was just a first.

Carroll Hindman “accidently” shot a Black man named Willie Gibson in the back of the head in 1902. Then a year later, another Black man, Henry McRuffin was also accidently killed while hunting, although who pulled the trigger is undisclosed.

Then, in the early 1900s, bodies started appearing.

Back when Black Lives didn’t matter.

One article I found, from 1906 was a highlight of Judge Madison M. Brooks, from Kaufman County. The reason Judge Brooks was highlighted in an article was because he was running for Governor that year. He didn’t win. Aside from being a gubernatorial candidate and a judge, he also served as a Kaufman County Commissioner, at one time.

This article told a story of the time a white man killed a Black man over a dispute. Except the article referred to the Black man as “an insolent negro.”

The white man went in front of the judge and gave a sob story about being poor, although he used to be a Confederate soldier.

That story just touched the Judge, a tear drop fell from his eye and he told the murderer to go in peace. This was only five years before the Confederate statue was placed in Kaufman.

To understand this, in context. A white man murdered a Black man in 1906 in Kaufman County. Because that white man said he was an ex-Confederate, Judge Brooks decided he should receive no punishment for murder.

I did a little digging into Judge Brooks, who was originally born in Mississippi. His father grew up on a plantation that had slaves. His son, Benjamin Brooks, followed in his dad’s footsteps and became a judge.

What’s the point? Judge, county commissioner, Brooks had influence on the things that went on in Kaufman County and is just one of many examples how Kaufman County’s white community partook in racism and white supremacy.

On August 23, in the Daily Express, there was an article that said a Black man and woman’s bodies were found. It’s possible the initial report given to the newspaper was mistaken, and the corner determined they were both women.

It should be noted, both Nannie Wren and Jennie Nash’s bodies were discovered. Finding dead Black bodies in Kaufman County was a regular occurring thing that happened for many decades.

Sometimes the coroner would help us out.

Although, it’s doubtful that was his intention over 100 years ago. Like on Willie Ander’s death certificate said “shot in the head by unknown person.”

• December 6, 1911. Willies Anders, 29 years old. He was shot in the head by an unknown party. His death certificate labeled him as a married laborer who was born in Mississippi.

• February 16, 1917. Mill McGruder, 28 years old. Mill was a married farmer who was shot and killed before he even reached the age of 30.

• September 8, 1917. Henry Parker, 45 years old. The death certificate listed the cause of death as ‘shot and (illegible) killed homicide.’ His death certificate, I found upsetting because underneath his cause of death it said he was a transient and ‘no one knows anything about him.’ While it lists him as married, I was unable to find any marriage records or occurrences of Henry on the previous census.
• September 19, 1917. Jesse Tate, 30 years old. His death certificate said he was stabbed and instantly killed. Just like the other man killed earlier in that month, Jesse was also a transient. However, this time A.P. Clark wrote, ‘no one cared.’

It’s unclear how or why some homicides have corresponding death certificates, while others have none at all. Just as it is unclear why some homicides were not published in the paper.

Like Will Blanch, who apparently got into a shoot out with law enforcement in Ellis County and then was chased to Kaufman County, where a constable shot him.

In 1917 there was no death certificate issued for Will Blanch. Not in Kaufman County or Ellis County.

Then, in August 1918, several reported that they were in Kaufman County and witnessed a lynching.

Aside from this little blip in a news article, there is no other records of a lynching in 1918 in Kaufman County. There are also no death certificates that year that listed the cause of death as strangulation or something similar.

It’s clear that between 1900 to 1920 in Kaufman County there was an excessive amount of racial violence, but because of the poor record keeping and local news’ indifference, we may never know how bad it truly was.

And in 1908, the talks about Kaufman County’s Confederate statue begun.

About that statue.

The Kaufman County Confederate Veterans named their camp after Judah Philip Benjamin (August 11, 1811 – May 6, 1884), a wealthy plantation owner and human trafficker who held Black people in slavery in Louisiana. He served in both houses of the Louisiana legislature prior to his election to the US Senate in 1852, where he was a staunch supporter of slavery.

When Harriet Beecher Stowe released her book Uncle Tom’s Cabin in 1852, which detailed the horrors of slavery, Benjamin spoke out against her portrayal with claims that enslaved black people in the South were well cared for, and that plantation punishments like whipping or branding, were not nearly harsh as the punishment of incarceration received by white men.

After Louisiana seceded from the Union to join the Confederacy in 1861, Benjamin resigned as senator and returned to New Orleans and was shortly thereafter appointed by Confederate President Jefferson Davis as Attorney General of the Confederacy, only to be promoted to Secretary of War shortly thereafter.

In March 1862, Benjamin was promoted again to Confederate Secretary of State, after which he began a failed campaign to seek official recognition of the Confederacy from France and the UK. In early 1865, as Union troops decimated the last of the Confederate ranks, Benjamin fled the Confederate capital in Richmond, VA with President Davis who was later captured by the US. Benjamin, however, was able to escape capture by fleeing on a boat to Great Britain, where he ultimately lived out his life in high esteem and wealth but as a traitor to the United States of America.

The United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC)

Jan 3, 1910 – Kaufman County Commissioner’s Court granted Kaufman County Judah P Benjamin Camp of Confederate Veterans permission to erect a Confederate Monument on the east lawn of the Kaufman County Courthouse. Confederate Veterans retained ownership of the monument but were allowed the space.

In their petition to the Commissioner’s Court, the UCV stated: “We are putting up our [monument] by private contributions and in the hope that it will stand forever as an inspiration to duty and patriotism to all those who shall come after us.” 

On November 12, 1912, the Confederate Monument was unveiled with a large ceremony on the Kaufman County Courthouse lawn. Confederate Veterans from across the county were brought in by train and marched into town with an escort by a “local militia.”

State President of the UDC, Katie Daffan (proud daughter of Confederate Veteran Reconstruction Klansman Lawrence Daffan) gave a speech in the courthouse in honor of the occasion. At the moment of the unveiling, Ms. Daffan paid homage and dedicated the monument, “in the name of the Confederate Government.” 

Did the Black community have any say or input on whether the Confederate statue was placed on the lawn of the halls of justice?

Of course not. The Black community had say on very little.

In August 1900 Kaufman County was one of the first counties in Texas to implement whites only primaries.

White only primaries persisted in Texas until the Supreme Court finally banned them in 1944.

As you may remember from part one, the white men of Kaufman County attempted to stop Black men from voting in the 1870s, that was only their first attempt.

Then, in 1903, Texas passed the Terrell Election Law.

Alexander Terrell was a Confederate soldier, a racist, and in the later part of life, a supreme court justice of Texas. The most notable part of the Terrell Election Law was poll taxes.

While the demand to leave only appeared as a blip in the newspaper, locally we don’t know what happened.

In 1914, H.C. Ghent was hired by the owners of a farm in Kaufman County.

Apparently the White Caps had been successful by that point and were running tenants out of town. The owners of the farm hired Ghent to protect the property and stop the White Caps from posting notices.

Somehow this led to Ghent killing W.B.J. Jering. Although the article doesn’t say directly, Jering was likely a White Cap.

Ghent was convicted of manslaughter and given two years in prison.