Amy Mallard

Amy Mallard was probably as unpopular in Toombs County as her husband Robert Mallard had been before he was lynched. The lynching had caused a lot of trouble… [Mallard] had been a “real uppity nigger” — some said he even wanted to be called mister — and most of Toombs County thought he’d gotten just what he deserved… Then a man named Joseph Goldwasser, who owns a department store in a Negro district in Cleveland, offered to help her. Between them and some other folks they got two Toombs County white men (William Howell, pictured below, and Roderick Clifton) indicted for the murder.

There was a little stir when people saw Goldwasser come in — him a white man — holding Amy’s arm, and carrying Amy’s baby. One farmer couldn’t help saying out loud: “Don’t that make you sick?”

Amy was put on the stand… Her attorney asked if she had recognized anyone. “Yes,” she said, “William Spud Howell.” [Howell] just smiled. But when Amy told how [her husband] got shot she went to pieces. She yelled, “Oh Lawdy, Oh murder. They killed him.” She got down on her knees, screamed, “I see ‘em. I see ‘em. Oh Lord—why did they murder him?” A lot of people in the audience couldn’t help laughing.

[Then], Howell’s attorney, T. Ross Sharpe, called two of the jurors down out of the box to be witnesses. Though both had sworn they were “impartial” before being seated on the jury, they each said they considered Amy’s reputation “bad” and would not believe what she said, even under oath.

That just about did it. The jury went out, came back in 26 minutes and pronounced Howell not guilty. The prosecution decided not to press charges against the second defendant.

Article sourced from Time Magazine, dated January 24, 1949. Images sourced from Life Magazine. Dedicated to all lynch victims and their families and descendants.