John Evans, 1914
On November 14, 1914, a public lynching was held at the corner of Old 9th Street South and 2nd Avenue South. John Evans, accused of killing his boss and assaulting his boss’ wife, was hanged from a light post. "They drug him from the jail which was over on Central Avenue to this spot and they hung him," Gwendolyn Reese, who co-chairs Pinellas Remembers, said. As 1,500 people gathered to watch him hang from the light post on the southwest corner, something happened that turned this lynching into a slaughter. “He was desperate to live, as we would all be, and he clung to the pole with arms and legs,” Reese said. “And an unidentified white woman in a car fired a gun. It was a fatal shot that killed him. But for the next 10 minutes, men, women, and children opened fire and riddled his body with bullets.” Evan's never had a trial, so he was never proven guilty. But his body hung on the light post for days as a warning to blacks in the area. Read More by Bay News 9 »
Why a Lynching Memorial?
Pinellas Remembers is working to install a historical marker bearing witness to the horrors of lynchings at a significant site in our community. We believe that publicly confronting the devastating history of racial terror lynching in our own community is an essential step towards recovery, healing and racial reconciliation needed to create a more just society. We believe that deep traumatic and psychological wounds of racial terror lynching continue to impact the Black community, and that truth and reconciliation follow one another and we are compelled to honestly and soberly recognize the pain of the past.
In the News
EJI Partners with Pinellas County, Florida, to Memorialize Lynching of John Evans See More »
Tampa Bay Rays Donate $100K to Groups for Social Change See More »
Request to install lynching memorial approved by city See More »
