The Lynch Quilts Project began with the story of Laura Nelson when I
encountered her image at the Without Sanctuary Exhibit. I was prompted
to purchase the book.
It's not that in the back of mind I did not consider this as a natural
component of this history. But for some reason, the story of Laura and
her son stuck with me.
I was mortified the day I saw the image
of Laura and her 12-yr old son. Those images solidified that
"knowledge" into a realization. I knew then that I had to do something. I
didn't know what the "something" was but it would take 3 years to
figure out what made sense for Laura's image and until 2021 to figure
out what to do about her son.
There are several accounts and
versions of the events leading up to this atrocity. But what we do know,
is that Laura Nelson was murdered on May 25, 1911 in Okemah, OK
side-by-side with her son L.D./Lawrence, who was 12 years-old at the
time.
There is also documentation that she had a 2 year-old
daughter named Carrie in her cell when the lynched mob arrived, as well
as a newborn baby girl around 2 months. Both have been lost through
history. What we do know is on that day in 1925, a mother died with her
son and two daughters are missing from historical record.
There
are other stories of women and lynching that must also be remembered.
Mary Turner who died seeking justice for her husband who was also
lynched. As a result, her unborn baby girl was cut from her body.
Born
alive someone then proceeded to stomp the new babe's head into the
ground. Or, Mary Scott; twice victimized. Lynched because her brother
killed a white man who had raped his sister. When they arrived to lynch
him, he got away and she was then killed instead.
For a list of
recorded cases of women and lynching please click here. You can also
check out the following books: Lynchings of Woen in the United States,
by Kerry Segrave and Gender and Lynching: The Politics of Memory, edited
by Everylin M. Simien.
Lynching of Laura and L. D. Nelson
Laura
and L. D. Nelson were an African-American mother and son who were
lynched on May 25, 1911, near Okemah, Okfuskee County, Oklahoma. They
had been seized from their cells in the Okemah county jail the night
before by a group of up to 40 white men, reportedly including Charley
Guthrie, father of the folk singer Woody Guthrie.
The Associated
Press reported that Laura was raped. She and L. D. were then hanged from
a bridge over the North Canadian River. According to one source, Laura
had a baby with her who survived the attack.
Laura and L. D. were
in jail because L. D. had been accused of having shot and killed Deputy
Sheriff George H. Loney of the Okfuskee County Sheriff's Office, during a
search of the Nelsons' farm for a stolen cow. L. D. and Laura were both
charged with murder; Laura was charged because she allegedly grabbed
the gun first. Her husband, Austin, pleaded guilty to larceny and was
sent to the relative safety of the state prison in McAlester, while his
wife and son were held in the county jail until their trial.
Sightseers
gathered on the bridge on the morning of the lynching. George Henry
Farnum, the owner of Okemah's only photography studio, took photographs,
which were distributed as postcards, a common practice at the time.
Although the district judge convened a grand jury, the killers were
never identified.
Four of Farnum's photographs are known to have
survived—two spectator scenes and one close-up view each of L. D. and
Laura. Three of the images were published in 2000 and exhibited at the
Roth Horowitz Gallery in New York by James Allen, an antique collector.
The images of Laura Nelson are the only known surviving photographs of a
black female lynching victim.
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