Lawrence Nelson Okemah, Oklahoma. 1911

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Laura and Lawrence Nelson were African-Americans who were lynched in Okemah, Oklahoma, on May 25, 1911.

Laura, her husband, their 15-year-old son Lawrence, and their baby, were taken into custody after Lawrence shot and killed George Loney, Okemah's deputy sheriff, when Loney and a posse turned up at the Nelson's home to investigate the theft of a cow. Laura's husband pleaded guilty to the theft and was sent to the relative safety of the state prison. In an effort to save her son, Laura said she had fired the fatal shot. Both she and Lawrence were arrested, the son taken to the local jail and Laura to a cell in the courthouse.

Three weeks later a mob of 40 armed white men arrived to kidnap them, tying up the guard and dragging off the mother and son. Laura was raped, according to some reports, then both were hanged from a bridge over the North Canadian River. Hundreds of sightseers gathered on the bridge the following morning, and photographs of the bodies were sold as postcards. The killers were never identified. The event was later commemorated in a number of songs by the folk singerWoody Guthrie, whose father attended the lynching.

The Nelsons were among at least 4,743 people lynched in the United States between 1882 and 1968, 3,446 of them black, 73 percent of them in the South.

Shooting

Accounts vary regarding what happened to the Nelsons, and details are hard to pin down. Some stories say the family had stolen a cow, others say a sheep. Some say Lawrence fired the gun only because he thought the officer was about to fire his. Others say the family left the officer to die begging for water. Some say Laura had a baby with her who died, while others say the baby was saved, and several primary sources make no mention of a baby. Folk singer Woody Guthrie, whose father Charley attended the lynching, wrote several songs about it, in which he speaks of three bodies hanging from the bridge, not two (see below). Some say Laura was raped before being hanged; other accounts make no reference to that.