On This Day - What happened 31 August 1919 AD

White mob dragged Lucius McCarty's body behind a car killing him before burning his corpse in a bonfire.

The Knoxville riot in Tennessee broke out after the arrest of a black suspect on suspicion of murdering a white woman. Searching for the prisoner, a lynch mob stormed the county jail, where they liberated 16 white prisoners, including suspected murderers. The mob attacked the African-American business district, where they fought against the district's black business owners, leaving at least 7 dead and wounding more than 20 people.