A white mob in Clark County, Arkansas lynched a Ben Daniels and his two sons on January 24, 1879. Daniels tried to pay for an item at store with a $50 bill when the merchant assumed a Black man could only have that much money if he had stolen it.
The merchant told police that he believed Daniels was a suspect in a theft that recently happened.
A few days before this incident, a white man named R.M Duff woke up in the middle of the night to find his home on fire. Duff claimed someone ran into the home and stole money as Duff evacuated with his wife. However, the farmer wasn’t able to provide any description of this person and no one was reported burned in the blaze.
Without any evidence connecting Daniels to this alleged theft, police responded to the merchant’s claim by arresting him solely based on his possession of a $50 bill. Police later alleged that, while in custody on the day of his arrest, Daniels confessed to stealing money from the Duff home and implicated his sons in the crime as well.
The sheriff then took Daniels’ sons into custody that same day. Later that night, before the family could be tried in a court of law, a mob of white men “overpowered” the sheriff who was supposed to be guarding them and lynched all three men. Some sources indicated that the two sons lynched with Daniels were the only ones arrested, while others reported that a third son was also arrested, not lynched, and remained in jail awaiting trial. News reports did not include the sons’ names.
After hanging the Daniels men from a tree, the white mob left their bodies on display as a way to further terrorize the Black community of Clark County, Arkansas.
