On July 4, 1908 it was a Saturday when a man broke into the home of Clergy Ballard. Clergy Ballard was a white mining engineer. When Clergy awoke he went to search his house and witnessed a man standing near his daughter’s bed. When the intruder saw Clergy Ballard the man who was in the house fled the house. Clergy Ballard went after the intruder and once he caught up to him the intruder attacked Ballard and slashed open Ballard’s neck with a straight razor. Before Ballard was pronounced dead he identified as Joe James. Joe James was a mild age black man and was new to town. Before the police took him away and put him into the city jail some of the white neighbors beat him. On August 14, a white women named Mabel Hallam who was in her 20’s was raped by a black caretaker known as George Richardson. Mabel was a street car conductor and claimed that Richardson has attacked her. The police took Richardson away and locked him up in the city jail. …show more content…
They all gathered downtown spring-field furious knowing that the 2 black males Joe James, and George Richardson had committed brutal crimes against the whites. Around 7:30 the crowed went to the city jail demanding to release the 2 black males to them. Sheriff Charles Werner who had already took the 2 prisoners, 64 miles away to Bloomington for safety with the help of Harry Loper who owned a restaurant. When the crowd of thousands of white males found out that Harry Loper helped get the prisoners to safety they went to his restaurant and trashed the place. A white male who was working there in the basement, was shot 18 times and died. The mob went and attacked all of the black areas of the