Death certificate of James T. Scott

By Courtesy of State Historical Society of Missouri

September 12, 2010 | 12:00 p.m. CDT

This is the death certificate of James T. Scott, a black man who was killed by a mob in Columbia in 1923. "Lynched" is listed as the primary cause of death at middle right, but just below that, a secondary factor is listed as "Committed rape." Scott was dragged from jail by the mob and hanged from a Stewart Road bridge before he could be tried for the rape he was accused of.