Lynching of Cordie Cheek

Lynching of Cordie Cheek
LocationMaury County, Tennessee, U.S.
DateDecember 15, 1934; 89 years ago (1934-12-15)
Attack type
Child murder by hanging, torture murder, lynching, shooting, dragging, kidnapping, extrajudicial killing, mutilation
VictimCordie Cheek, aged 17
PerpetratorsMob of white residents in Maury County, Tennessee
Including:
  • Earl Allen (inflicted fatal injury)
  • C. Hayes Denton
  • Bob Hancock
  • Henry Carl Moore
Motive
ChargesNone[1][2]

James Cordie Cheek (1916 – December 15, 1933[3]) was a 17-year-old[4] African-American youth who was lynched by a white mob in Maury County, Tennessee near the county seat of Columbia. After being falsely accused of attempting to rape a young white girl, Cheek was released from jail when the grand jury did not indict him, due to lack of evidence. The county magistrate and two other men from Maury County abducted Cheek from Nashville, where he was staying with relatives near Fisk University, took him back to the county, and turned him over to a lynch mob. The mob mutilated Cheek and murdered him by hanging. A grand jury declined to indict anyone for the murder of Cheek.[1][2]

  1. ^ a b "Maury County: Cordie Cheek & the Columbia Race Riot of 1946".
  2. ^ a b "Cordie Cheek Dec. 20, 1933 pt. 1". The Tennessean. 20 December 1933. p. 1.
  3. ^ "Killing of James Cordie Cheek in Tennessee in 1933". The Burnham-Nobles Digital Archive. The Northeastern University School of Law. Retrieved July 19, 2023.
  4. ^ Robert Cromie (September 28, 1946). "Tells of Hiding 2 Negroes From Tennessee Mob". Chicago Tribune.