Two Trees, a Lynching, and the Future

Dealing with yesterday to improve tomorrow.

A Commentary by Dale Cox

The actual "Claude Neal" tree at the Jackson
County Courthouse faces Madison Street. 

Thirty years before I was born, six men took a man named Claude Neal into the deep swamps of the Chattahoochee River in Jackson County, Florida. They chained him to a tree, tortured him, and murdered him.

The crime was so brutal that residents miles away heard the farm laborer's screams. After Neal was dead, the men of the self-dubbed "Committee of Six" threw his body onto the back bumper of a car and carried it to the Cannady farm near Greenwood. The remains were kicked from the bumper as the vehicle approached the house. The body was dragged by the neck into the yard.

Claude Neal was accused of killing Lola Cannady, the 18-year-old daughter of farmer and furniture maker George Cannady. She was attacked as she pumped water for the family livestock, beaten with a hammer, and thrown into a muddy pen for the hogs to eat. She regained consciousness, climbed over a fence, and started to crawl across a peanut field, but her murderer saw her and attacked her again. This time she was dragged deep into a wooded area where her skull was crushed with an oak limb. Her body was hidden beneath fallen trees and debris.

The Jackson County Courthouse as it appeared in
1934. The structure was later demolished.

Lola Cannady slept in a cold grave by the time Claude Neal's body was shot full of bullet holes in the front yard of the Cannady home. He was already dead by then. Neighbors threw his body onto a flatbed truck and carried it to Marianna. 

Neal was hanged from a tree outside the courthouse as a message to Sheriff W.F. "Flake" Chambliss, who had gone to extraordinary lengths to save the unfortunate man from death at the hands of the mob. The lawman found the body a short time later, cut it down, and carried it to the nearby jail.

Claude Neal was black. Lola Cannady was white. He was married with a young daughter. She was engaged to be married. Both were murdered in the most brutal ways imaginable. Rumors about them turned into legends, which many now accept as fact. As if anything could excuse murder and the brutal way in which the two of them were killed.

The ghosts of Claude Neal and Lola Cannady still haunt Jackson County, crying out for justice. 

Lola is the more forgotten of the two. Not even a gravestone reminds us that she ever lived. For some reason, people seem not to care, yet she was a victim too.

"Cut it Down," and "Claude Neal" signs were
posted hist week on an oak tree at the Jackson
County Courthouse. The actual tree is visible at
left in the background.

Claude is better remembered. And there is the controversy that rises again to wrap itself around Marianna and Jackson County. A petition is circulating on the internet, demanding that a tree in front of the courthouse be cut down (see it here). Signs also went up on one of the courthouse oaks this week, pointing it out as the "Claude Neal" tree with the demand "Cut it down."

It is a refrain that rises and falls with the times. I have long known that many older people in Jackson County's African American community are sensitive about the tree, and understandably so. Some remember the terror of the riots that followed the Neal lynching and the fear that their homes would be burned down around them. They are fewer in number now, but they are still here.

I admit that I have been surprised by the growing passion among younger generations about the tree, even if there is sometimes confusion about which tree it is (more on that in a minute). This growing passion has caused me much reflection.

Aesop Bellamy's trees are seen here about
20-years after they were planted by the African
American businessman.

The courthouse trees - including the one used for less than one hour to display the body of Claude Neal - are historic in their own right. They were planted in 1873 by a man named Aesop Bellamy. A freedman or former slave, he was one of the county's first black businessmen. In what may be the earliest contract award by Jackson County to an African American, Bellamy was hired to plant 36 live oak trees around the courthouse. Not many of them survive, but they stand as a monument to this early entrepreneur.

The actual "Claude Neal" tree at the Jackson County Courthouse is not the oak in front that many people point to. It is the second tree from the northeast corner on the Madison Street side. The sheriff's office faced Madison Street in 1934, and Neal's body was hung there as a message to Sheriff Chambliss. The actual limb from which the body was suspended is no longer there, it was cut off years ago, but the tree remains.

The tree where the "Committee of Six" killed
Claude Neal was destroyed by Hurricane Michael
in 2018. Only the base of the trunk remains.

The other "Claude Neal" tree is the so-called Hanging Tree near Parramore Landing in eastern Jackson County. He was chained to it while he was tortured and murdered. I have guided classes from Florida State University to the tree on numerous occasions, braving snakes and briars to help them with their studies. Hurricane Michael largely destroyed it, leaving only the base of the trunk. 

So how do we, as a community, begin the process of putting the ghosts of Claude Neal and Lola Cannady to rest? 

That is a question that we should all put some time and thought into answering. The Bible teaches us to be merciful and kind to one another. We all see the world through different eyes, but there are many things that we all have in common, no matter our race or culture or background or religion. We all want our children and grandchildren to have better lives and a better place to live in.

I have some suggestions - and that's all they are, just suggestions - I have no more power than anyone else. Perhaps they are worth considering.

1. Let's begin by offering the families of Claude Neal and Lola Cannady to place headstones on their graves. Neither grave is marked. If the exact burial spots cannot be identified, then the stones can be placed nearby.
2. Jackson County, working with the Florida Division of Historical Resources, should place historical markers near the Neal murder site at Parramore Landing and the Cannady/Smith farm sites near Greenwood to interpret the events of 1934. Independent state historians should develop the text for the markers.
3. The Jackson County Commission should convene a hearing to receive public input on the fate of the actual "Claude Neal" tree on the courthouse square. This tree is the second one south of the northeast corner of the square on the Madison Street side. Despite its historical significance, if the commissioners believe after hearing public input that community healing will result from its removal, it should be taken down and proper interpretive signage placed to explain why.
4. If the tree is removed, "Aesop Bellamy Trees" rooted from acorns produced by the other oaks on Courthouse Square should be planted each year for 10-years at Jackson Blue Springs and other county parks.
5. Regardless of the fate of the "Claude Neal" tree, the County Commission should adopt an ordinance declaring the other live oaks planted by Aesop Bellamy on the courthouse square to be Landmark Trees and providing for their permanent protection and care. The county should work with the Florida Division of Historical Resources to prepare an application for listing the trees (less the Claude Neal tree) on the National Register of Historic Places due to their connection to Aesop Bellamy, an African American entrepreneur of the Reconstruction era. The county should place a marker telling the story of Bellamy's trees.
6. Finally, the Jackson County Tourist Development Council is encouraged to work in cooperation with the Jackson County Commission, the Jackson County Branch of the NAACP, the Florida Panhandle Natural and Cultural Resources Association (FPNCRA), and the Chipola Historical Trust to develop a multi-cultural driving tour of Jackson County. This tour should feature historic sites and landmarks of interest to people of all races and cultures, to inspire our young people and show them that it is possible to rise above circumstances to achieve great things.

These are my suggestions. I welcome you to make suggestions of your own as comments, and perhaps we can come up with a plan to move past the ghosts of the past and into a better future together.

All comments are moderated, so just be polite, and your thoughts will be shared. No bad language!

The Shooting of Deputy Dave Ham - Part Two

Deputy Dave Ham

Last week I posted an excerpt on the fatal shooting in 1934 from Deputy Dave Ham from my new book, The Claude Neal Lynching (Please click here to read The Shooting of Deputy Dave Ham - Part One).

A young father with a growing family, Ham was shot in an escape attempt by two convicted bankrobbers on the evening of the same night that murder suspect Claude Neal was taken from a jail in Brewton, Alabama. The deputy was rushed to a hospital in Chipley and by late night was in surgery. He would live only two more days.

The following is a second excerpt from The Claude Neal Lynching about the night that Deputy Ham was shot:

The shooting of a law enforcement officer always creates chaos and this incident was no different. Besides worrying about his wounded employee and a wounded prisoner as well, Sheriff Chambliss had to get Buford Mears to a secure location while also trying to find out how he had managed to get his hands on a pistol.

That information soon came out and deputies arrested Horace Johns on charges that he had slipped Mears the gun during the trial. The bank robber had managed to keep it concealed until he pulled it out and started shooting inside the sheriff’s car.[i]

While the sheriff and his deputies tried to deal with this situation, the caravan of cars driven by the lynch mob slowly made its way along the back roads along the line dividing Florida from Alabama. When Mears opened fire that evening, he created such chaos that Chambliss was unable to give due attention to the situation in the northeastern part of the county. In fact, the sheriff spent much of the night dealing with the chaos caused by the failed escape attempt and in worrying about his severely wounded deputy.

Events now began to take on a life of their own. With the sheriff in Chipley waiting to learn the results of the surgery on Ham and the people of Marianna electrified by news of the shooting, the lynch mob slowly closed in on Brewton, Alabama. They had picked their route well and avoided all contact with law enforcement as they moved west. When they reached their destination later that night, their arrival would come as a total surprise.

The gunfire between Cottondale and Chipley on the evening of October 25^th played a significant but often underestimated or even ignored role in the events of the next two days. The attention of the sheriff and his deputies was necessarily distracted at a critical moment.

 The calmness that he likely felt was finally settling on the county was shattered when Buford Mears pulled a .32 caliber pistol and shot Deputy Dave Ham. The evening of the 25^th turned chaotic and the chaos would continue for days to come. Literally before the sheriff had time to even consider what was happening, events began to overwhelm him.

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The new book is available at Chipola River Book & Tea in Downtown Marianna (same block as the Gazebo Restaurant) for $19.95. 

It can also be ordered online as either a book or a Kindle download at Amazon.com by following these links:

Book ($19.95)  The Claude Neal Lynching: The 1934 Murders of Claude Neal and Lola Cannady

Kindle ($6.96)  The Claude Neal Lynching

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[i] St. Petersburg Times, October 28, 1934.

The Shooting of Deputy Dave Ham - Part One

Deputy Dave Ham
Killed in the Line of Duty, 1934

The following is excerpted from my new book, The Claude Neal Lynching: The 1934 Murders of Claude Neal and Lola Cannady. It is available now at Chipola River Book and Tea in Downtown Marianna (same block as the Gazebo Restaurant) or can be ordered online in either book or Kindle formats at Amazon.com or www.exploresouthernhistory.com/dalecox.

One of the least mentioned incidents associated with the October 1934 outbreak of violence in Jackson County was the fatal shooting of Deputy Dave Ham.

He and Sheriff W.F. "Flake" Chambliss were escorting two convicted bank robbers to the Washington County Jail in Chipley when a shootout erupted inside the car.

Buford Mears and Harrison McKinney had been convicted that day of robbing the Bank of Malone earlier in the year and then taking off for Chicago with the loot. For their security, they were being moved to the jail in Chipley.

The following is from Chapter Seven of the new book:

...[C]ourt activity ended for the day and Sheriff Chambliss and Deputy Dave Ham moved Mears and McKinney from the holding cell into a Model A Ford to begin the trip back to the Washington County Jail in Chipley, where they were being held for their own safety. The third bank robber, M.F. Dudley, was younger than the other two and was released to go home pending his sentencing.

The black car carrying the four men made its way out of Marianna and west on U.S. Highway 90. The 1939 Works Progress Administration guide to Florida, published just five years later, described the route as “a fertile hilly area producing Satsuma oranges, pecans, sugar cane, and peanuts.” Cottondale, through which the lawmen passed with their prisoners, was described by the guide in colorful terms:

COTTONDALE…is a farming, fishing and hunting center. The fish in neighboring streams and lakes are so voracious, it is said, that fisherman have to stand out of sight behind trees while baiting their hooks. Unlike visitors, old residents refuse to fish on Sundays, for, as one explained, ‘I ain’t got nothing’ else to do on weekdays.’[i]

The four men may even have talked about the things they had in common, hunting, fishing and farming, as they made their way along the winding highway. Chambliss and Ham may have discussed the Claude Neal case. Whatever their topic of conversation, they did not reach Chipley.

As the Model A passed through the pine woods and fields between Cottondale and Chipley, Buford Mears suddenly pulled a pistol and opened fire. Deputy Ham drew his own pistol and returned fire as the car careened off the road. By the time Sheriff Chambliss could knock the gun from Mears’ hand and subdue him, both Ham and the other bank robber, Harrison McKinney, had been seriously wounded. [ii]

In a motion filed in circuit court the next morning, State Attorney John Carter provided more information on the wounding of the deputy:

…Dave Ham, while transporting certain prisoners from Marianna to the County Jail at Chipley, Florida., at about 8:00 P.M. last night, was seriously wounded by being shot with a pistol by one of said prisoners. Said pistol was a 32 caliber, and the bullet entered said Dave Ham in the left arm, passing through his left arm and into the left side of his body just below the shoulder, and passed through his body just below the right shoulder. That he is now confined in the hospital of Dr. Watson, in Chipley, Florida, and is in a serious condition as a result of said wound….[iii]

The wounded prisoner, McKinney, was brought back to Marianna to the Baltzell Hospital while Ham, as noted above, was taken to Chipley for care.

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I will post a second excerpt about the shooting of Deputy Ham in coming days, so be sure to check back. If you are interested in reading the entire book, it can be purchased for $19.95 from Chipola Book and Tea or ordered online from Amazon.com by clicking here:

The Claude Neal Lynching: The 1934 Murders of Claude Neal and Lola Cannady

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[i] Federal Writers’ Project of the Works Projects Administration for the State of Florida, Florida: A Guide to the Southernmost State, Oxford University Press, 1939, p. 444.

[ii] Chambliss, Lynching Report; St. Petersburg Times, October 28, 1934, p. 3.

[iii] Motion for Mistrial in State of Florida vs. Rudolph Godwin, alias Love Godwin, submitted by State Attorney John Carter, Jr., October 26, 1934.

New Book: "The Claude Neal Lynching" now available!

"The Claude Neal Lynching," my latest book, is now available at Amazon.com.

The book examines the 1934 murders of Lola Cannady, Claude Neal and Deputy Dave Ham in Jackson County, Florida.

Nineteen-year-old Lola Cannady was a young woman who lived and worked on a farm just north of the town of Greenwood. On October 18, 1934, she went to water her family's hogs and was never seen alive again by her family. The next morning her badly beaten and battered body was found covered with logs and brush in a nearby wooded area.

Evidence found at the scene led investigators to the nearby home of Claude Neal, a 23-year-old farm worker who eventually confessed to the crime. Neal was arrested in nearby Malone and then moved from jail to jail across the Florida Panhandle and into South Alabama in a desperate effort by law enforcement officers to save him from a mob that was determined to lynch him for the crime.

As the effort to protect Neal was underway, one of Jackson County's handful of deputies was shot and wounded by a convicted bank robber. Deputy Dave Ham would die from his wounds.

The nine days of chaos in Jackson County culminated when Neal was taken from the jail in Brewton, Alabama, by a group of men carrying guns and dynamite. Taken to a remote spot deep in the Chattahoochee River swamps, he was tortured and lynched. On the morning of October 27, 1934, his body was found hanging from a tree at the Jackson County Courthouse in Marianna.

Riots followed and Governor Dave Sholtz was forced to send in the Florida National Guard to occupy Marianna as the only way to calm the outbreak. It was one of the most violent civil disturbances in the history of the South.

The new book reveals never before seen detail on the incidents of October 1934, including information from interviews with two men (now deceased) who were involved in the actual lynching. A chronological history, "The Claude Neal Lynching" explores not just the lynching of Neal, but the murders of Lola Cannady and Dave Ham in great depth, while also detailing the events of the Marianna Riot.

Attention is also devoted to clearing up many of the misconceptions and even outright falsehoods that have surrounded the story of these events, thanks to thousands of writings that have not been based on reliable information.

The book can be purchased for $19.95 for instant delivery through Amazon.com by clicking here:  The Claude Neal Lynching: The 1934 Murders of Claude Neal and Lola Cannady

It is also available as an instant download for Amazon Kindle devices and software for $6.95:  The Claude Neal Lynching

If you live and shop in Marianna, the book will be available at Chipola River Book and Tea in Downtown Marianna by the middle of next week. If you would like to reserve a copy in advance, you can drop in and do that at anytime.

"The Claude Neal Lynching" - New Book by Dale Cox now Available for Kindle

My newest book, "The Claude Neal Lynching," is now available for users of Amazon Kindle devices or Amazon's free Kindle software for computer, iPad, etc.  The print edition will be released in another week or so.
The book is an examination of the 1934 Jackson County lynching of Claude Neal and the related murders of 19 year old Lola Cannady and Deputy Dave Ham of the Jackson County Sheriff's Office.

A farm laborer, Neal was accused of brutally murdering Lola Cannady while she was watering hogs on her family farm between Greenwood and Malone. Taken into custody and moved for his own protection to a series of jails across the Florida Panhandle and South Alabama, he was eventually seized from the jail in Brewton, Alabama, by a group of men armed with both weapons and explosives.

Brought back to Jackson County, Neal was tortured and lynched in the deep swamps of the Chattahoochee River by a group of six men while a crowd of thousands waited at the Cannady farm hoping for a chance to witness or participate in his killing.

As these events were underway, Deputy Ham was shot and mortally wounded in a deadly escape attempt by two bank robbers. The shooting of the officer added to the general chaos.

The eight days of tragedy culminated when rioting broke out in downtown Marianna after Neal's body was found hanging from a tree at the Jackson County Courthouse. The Florida National Guard was called in to restore order.

The new book is a chronological history of the events that took place in Jackson County between October 18-28, 1934. It is the first book on this topic in thirty years and unveils a large amount of new information about those events, including new evidence in the Lola Cannady murder, new detail in the Neal lynching and the first detailed account ever written of the shooting of Deputy Ham and its role in the overall situation.

Please click here to order through Amazon.com or to read an excerpt from the book:

The Claude Neal Lynching

I will let you know as soon as the print edition is out.

UPDATE: Prosecutions unlikely in Claude Neal Lynching

Old Jackson County Courthouse

The new investigation into the 1934 Claude Neal lynching in Jackson County is coming to an end and the Justice Department says prosecutions are unlikely to result.
This is a logical conclusion as all of the men involved in the 77-year-old case are dead.

The news came this week out of Washington, D.C., where a spokesperson indicated that most of the FBI investigations into dozens of Civil Rights era "cold cases" are now over and the rest are nearing their conclusions.  "Few, if any, of these cases will be prosecuted," the spokesperson indicated.

Claude Neal was lynched in Jackson County by a small group of men in 1934 and his body hanged from a tree at the courthouse after he confessed to raping and murdering a young woman named Lola Cannady near Greenwood.  She was beaten to death with a hammer.

Local authorities tried to protect Neal by sending him to several jails across Florida and Alabama, but press reports finally led the lynchers to him at the jail in Brewton, Alabama. Armed with dynamite and guns they removed him from the jail, brought him back to Jackson County and tortured and then killed him in a remote area near today's Parramore Landing Park on Lake Seminole.

The lynching generated widespread coverage and became a key factor in efforts to pass a national anti-lynching bill.  A Jackson County Grand Jury ruled that Neal had killed Lola Cannady and then been killed by a group of unknown persons.  No one was ever charged in his death.

My new book, The Claude Neal Lynching: The 1934 Murders of Lola Cannady and Claude Neal,is now available. It can be ordered at the upper right of this page and is also available at Chipola River Book and Tea in Downtown Marianna. You also can read more about the violent incidents of October 1934 at www.exploresouthernhistory.com/claudeneal.

Excerpt #2 - The Claude Neal Lynching (New Book)

Cannady house in late 1980s prior to its demolition.

The following is a second excerpt from my new book on the Claude Neal lynching, which took place in 1934 in Jackson County.

As I noted on October 22nd, the U.S. Department of Justice has opened a new investigation of the lynching and an FBI agent has been in the county looking at records and trying to locate potential witnesses. Please click here to read the original story.

Claude Neal, who also went by the alias Claud Smith, lived with his mother, great-aunt and common-law wife in a frame home a couple of miles north of Greenwood. In October of 1934, he was accused in the brutal slaying of a 19-year-old woman named Lola Cannady. She had been raped and beaten to death with a hammer.

Neal was arrested and, as law enforcement tried to protect him from outraged citizens, was moved to four different jails in Florida and Alabama. The effort to insure his safety failed, however, and he was taken from the jail in Brewton, Alabama, by a group of men carrying guns and dynamite. Carried back to Jackson County, Claude Neal was tortured and killed in a remote wooded area near today's Parramore Landing Park.  Please click here to read more.

My new book on the topic - The Claude Neal Lynching: The 1934 Murders of Claude Neal and Lola Cannady - will be released shortly. As promised, here is another excerpt from the book.  Please click here to read Excerpt #1.

Please do not reprint or otherwise publish this excerpt without contacting me for permission. Thanks!

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Excerpt #2
The Claude Neal Lynching: The 1934 Murders of Claude Neal and Lola Cannady
by Dale Cox
(Coming November 2011)

Site of the Cannady house as it appears today.

Many modern writers have proclaimed 1934 as a time of great racism in Jackson County and a time when tense racial relations prevailed in the Cannady neighborhood. This was not true. The Cannady family was on good terms with the African Americans of their neighborhood. Sallie Smith lived in a weather-beaten house just up the road and members of the Smith, Long and Neal families lived in similar homes scattered around the vicinity. The Smith home was a bustling place, not unlike the neighboring Cannady house. Living with Smith was her recently widowed niece, Annie Smith, the mother of Claude Neal. Claude also lived in the old house, as did his common-law-wife and his three-year-old daughter.

The Cannady and Smith/Neal families were friendly. George Cannady’s children, including Lola, had grown up playing and later working along-side members of Sally Smith’s extended family. Two of the Cannady daughters were about the same age as Claude Neal and knew him well. When he was named as a suspect in Lola’s murder, her sister expressed shock and confusion at the allegation:

…I’d just like to see the man who did this just once. I can’t understand what the motive was for this brutal deed. To think that Claude Neal, who had been raised with my sister and me and worked for us all his life, could do such a thing – it is unbelievable. I only wish that every resident of Jackson County could view the body of my sister. (7)

As Lola’s sister told a local newspaper report, the children had been raised together and Claude even worked at times for the Cannady family. He helped with heavy farm labor during the planting and picking seasons, maintained fences and did whatever else George needed and could afford. The families, in fact, lived very much alike. Their homes were weathered and sagging under the weight of the years, but the yards were swept and clean of grass or weeds. They lived on cornbread and sweet potatoes, with a bit of pork or chicken thrown in now and then. Syrup, plums and scuppernongs were favorite sweets and they washed with lye soap made using the ashes from their fireplaces. In the winter, cold wind blew through the cracks in the walls and in the summer the heat was so intolerable that “siestas” were commonly taken on the front porch through the middle part of the day.

 

Site of Sallie Smith's house as it appears today.

Both families were made up of hard working people who were suffering through the greatest economic catastrophe that America had ever known. The debate over whether blacks or whites should receive government relief jobs might have been, and was, an issue in the towns, but out in the farm country there were no jobs to lead to such animosity. Race, of course, was an issue and many years would pass before desegregation brought the children of rural white families and the children of rural black families together for school. Black citizens generally did not vote, but then too most poor whites could not afford the poll tax and were disenfranchised as well. Slang terms were commonly used by people of both races to refer to those of a different color. Such things were part of the “big picture” of life in the United States during the 1930s, but were not everyday concerns among the poor farm families of the Cannady neighborhood where people were just trying to keep food on their table and survive to the next day.

One “piney woods philosopher” who grew up during the era of the Claude Neal lynching described the situation well when he pointed out that “Southern people back then were racist against blacks as a group. Northern people were racist against blacks as individuals.” His point was that rural white Southerners in places like Jackson County tended to joke or speak in derogatory terms about African Americans as a race, but usually got along well with their black friends or with black neighbors that they knew and recognized. Northerners, on the other hand, spoke of the rights of African Americans as a race, but were prone to practice sometimes fearful and violent racism against individual black families or citizens that might, for example, try to move into their neighborhood.

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The book is now available and can be ordered at the upper right of this page. It also is available at Chipola River Book and Tea in Downtown Marianna. For more on the 1934 violence, please visit: www.exploresouthernhistory.com/claudeneal.

Excerpt #1 - New Book on the Claude Neal Lynching

Cannady House in 1980s, before it was demolished.

My new book on the 1934 murder of Lola Cannady and lynching of Claude Neal in Jackson County is now available.

It can be ordered at the upper right of this page or purchased at Chipola River Book and Tea in Downtown Marianna.

Claude Neal was accused of raping and murdering 19-year-old Lola Cannady near Greenwood and had confessed to the crime when he was taken from a jail in Brewton, Alabama, by a group of men armed with guns and dynamite. Brought back to Jackson County, he was tortured and killed in a remote wooded area near the Parramore community in eastern Jackson County.

The FBI has opened a new investigation into the Claude Neal lynching (although apparently not into the murder of Lola Cannady) and a family member of Neal told a Tallahassee newspaper this week that his family wants $77 million dollars in compensation from either the state or federal government.

That equals out to $1 million for each year that has passed since Neal's death on October 26, 1934.

My new book is titled: The Claude Neal Lynching: The 1934 Murders of Claude Neal and Lola Cannady. It will be released in both e-book and print editions over the next two weeks.

The book is written without an agenda, political or otherwise, and offers a chronological history of the events that took place in October of 1934, giving equal attention to the deaths of both Lola Cannady and Claude Neal. Previous writings on the topic have given only scant attention to Cannady's death.

The following excerpt is from Chapter One of the new book. Please do not reprint without permission:

In the summer and fall of 2011, the United States Department of Justice opened a civil rights investigation into the 1934 lynching of Claude Neal. It was, so far as is known, the first time that agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation looked into the crime and was part of a wider investigation of as many as 100 historical crimes opened during the administration of President George W. Bush.. While funding for such efforts was reduced under President Barack Obama, the investigations have continued.

“(H)ate-crimes enforcement, and cold-case investigations in particular, remain a priority to this administration,” Justice Department Spokesperson Xochitl Hinojosa told reporters in July of 2011, “and the Civil Rights Division will devote the resources necessary to fully investigate all significant matters.” While the department would not confirm details, one of those "significant matters" was the Claude Neal lynching. FBI agents came to Jackson County where they interviewed current and former public officials and conducted records research at the Jackson County Courthouse in Marianna. Their investigation was launched seventy-seven years after the horrible events of 1934.

It was not, of course, the first time that the shadows of that fateful year lingered over Jackson County, nor will it likely be the last. The story of the Claude Neal lynching, however, is not just a story of extralegal justice in the years of the Great Depression, it is a story of violence and murder. It began when the life of a young woman named Lola Cannady was brutally taken in the farm country near Greenwood, Florida, on a clear and cool October afternoon.

Lola Cannady, ca. 1934

Lola Cannady was, by all accounts, a bright and cheerful young woman. Friendly with a kind word for all she met, she was small in stature and skinny as a rail, as were far too many of the people who lived on farms during those hard times. She was part of a large family, but pitched in and did her share of the work by feeding and watering the family hogs to take labor from the shoulders of her father and brothers while they worked in the fields. She also helped care for the house, do the family washing and cooking and look out for her youngest brother who was still too small to do heavy farm work.

Like most young people of that day and this, she enjoyed socializing with friends and is remembered even today as a pretty young woman who drew the attention of potential suitors. Her cousins Dora King, Bessie King and Clara Bell Stanley lived nearby and they often visited each other. While the girls were cousin, they were so close that they often called each other “sister.”

Much of their conversation during the late summer of 1934 was likely about Lola’s engagement to a young man in the community. She was, according to one acquaintance, “really excited and chattered about getting married like all young girls do.” The Great Depression was then in its darkest days, but despite the hard times and hunger that stalked the land, the wedding was an exciting and anticipated event for the whole extended family.

Like Acadamy Award winning actress Faye Dunaway, who was born nearby seven years after Lola’s death, the young woman dreamed of escaping the hard life of the farm. She enjoyed visiting her sister and other relatives in Tallahassee where she saw in such now routine conveniences as electric light, running water and well-stocked store shelves the promise of a better life away from the sandy peanut and cotton fields of Jackson County. She hoped one day to live in Tallahassee, possibly even find a real job there and enjoy simple luxuries that must have seemed extravagant to a young woman from the farm.

The Cannady family, like most of the other farm families of Jackson County, ate simple food and there was never enough of it. A cousin remembered meals of sweet potatoes and cornbread on visits to the weathered farmhouse. Protein was in short supply and pork chops, bacon and fried chicken were delicacies not often enjoyed. When flour could be afforded, especially after the crop came in or the season’s hogs were sold, there were biscuits and red-eye gravy. Summer brought peaches and plums, while in the fall there were scuppernongs, ripe persimmons, and green boiled peanuts, along with sugar cane and cane syrup. All of these were delicacies anticipated the year round.

I will post additional excerpts over coming days. To read more about the Neal lynching until the next post, please visit www.exploresouthernhistory.com/claudeneal.

FBI Opens New Investigation of 1934 Jackson County Lynching

Old Jackson County Courthouse

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is investigating the 77 year old lynching of Claude Neal, a black farm laborer accused of murdering a young woman near Greenwood.
Agents have been in Jackson County over recent weeks looking into the nearly eight decade old lynching as part of a new U.S. Department of Justice focus on approximately 100 unsolved crimes of the Civil Rights era. The FBI does not confirm active investigations, but local leaders have confirmed the presence of investigators in the county on a condition of anonymity.

Although the Claude Neal lynching is often called the "Marianna lynching," the man was actually killed in a remote wooded area near today's Parramore Landing Park in eastern Jackson County. His body was hanged from a tree at the Jackson County Courthouse.

Lola Cannady was attacked near the trees in the distance.

Neal was accused of murdering 19-year-old Lola Cannady on the afternoon of October 19, 1934. The young woman was reported missing after she left her home along what is now Dozier Road north of Greenwood to water hogs but failed to return. As concern grew over her whereabouts, family and neighbors began to search the vicinity for any traces of her. They found evidence of a fight near the hog pen, blood stains and a man's tracks leading to the scene from the nearby home of Sallie Smith.

Following the tracks to the house, the searchers found Sallie Smith and her niece Annie Smith washing a man's bloody clothes. A bloodstained hammer was also found. Annie Smith's 23-year-old son, Claude Neal, was not at home and did not return home that night. Suspicion immediately centered on him and the women later confirmed they had seen him near the hog pen with Lola Cannady and then heard her scream. They also confirmed that the bloodstained clothes belonged to him.

Lola's mother kneels over her daughter's body in 1934.

Lola's body was found early the next morning, dumped in a nearby wooded area and covered with logs and brush. She had been raped and beaten to death with a hammer.

Near the young woman's body, searchers found a piece of bloodstained cloth and the stem and loop of a man's pocket watch. The items turned out to be crucial pieces of evidence. The piece of cloth was matched to a ripped part of Neal's shirt and when taken into custody on the morning of October 19, 1934, it was discovered that his pocket watch was missing its loop and stem. The broken watch pieces found near Lola Cannady's body fit perfectly with Neal's damaged watch.

Claude Neal was arrested in Malone on suspicion of murder, but almost immediately Sheriff W.F. "Flake" Chambliss heard rumors that a mob was planning to seize him. The mob planned, according to the sheriff's reports, to take Neal back to the scene of the murder and allow Lola's father to kill him.

Deputy Dave Hamm

In order to protect the life of his prisoner, Chambliss transferred him first to the Washington County Jail in Chipley and from there to the Bay County Jail in Panama City. On the very night of Neal's arrest (October 19), however, Jackson County Deputy Dave Hamm observed a long line of cars passing through Cottondale en route to Chipley and Panama City. The Bay County sheriff was warned that a possible attack on his jail was being mounted and urged to move Neal immediately. The suspect was placed aboard a boat and carried to what is now Fort Walton Beach (then Camp Walton) and from there by car to Pensacola.

From Pensacola, Neal was moved again to the county jail in Brewton, Alabama. There, on October 22nd, he made a complete confession to the murder of Lola Cannady, but also implicated a second man named Herbert Smith.

Deputies in Jackson County took Herbert Smith into custody that same afternoon and quickly spirited him to the Leon County Jail in Tallahassee for his own protection. From there he was taken around through Georgia and Alabama to Brewton so he could confront Neal for implicating him in the crime. When Neal saw Smith in the Brewton jail, he admitted that the second man had not been involved and amended his confession to say that he had acted alone in attacking and murdering Lola Cannady.

Between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. on October 26, 1934, a group of men from Jackson County stormed the jail in Brewton and demanded that Claude Neal be turned over to them. They were armed with pistols, shotguns and dynamite. Taking the suspect by force from the jail, they drove back to Jackson County on secondary roads to avoid being spotted by law enforcement officers along the way.

Claude Neal at Courthouse
(Edited)

Neal was taken to a remote wooded area near today's Parramore Landing Park. There he was tortured for several hours and finally killed. His body was then carried to the Cannady farm near Greenwood, where additional bullets were fired into the lifeless corpse. From the farm the body was taken to Marianna and hanged from a tree on the courthouse grounds.

Sheriff Chambliss found the body at around 6 a.m. on October 27th and cut it down. Neal was buried at Nubbin Ridge Cemetery near Greenwood at 10 a.m. People from throughout the region continued to arrive in Marianna throughout the morning, however, and at 12 noon rioting broke out around courthouse square.

A man was saved from rioters by Jackson County deputies, who held the mob at bay from the doors of the courthouse by claiming they had machine guns and were prepared to use them. Governor Dave Sholtz ordered National Guard companies to Marianna from Tallahassee and Panama City to quell the rioting. They arrived late in the afternoon and the situation immediately calmed.

The Claude Neal case was featured prominently in the effort by the NAACP and other organizations to secure the passage of a national anti-lynching law. That effort ultimately failed when the bill bogged was filibustered in the U.S. Senate, but the nationwide outrage over the lynching played a significant role in bringing the long history of American lynchings to an end.

No one was ever arrested in connection with the Neal lynching, although both a coroner's inquest and the Jackson County Grand Jury returned reports blaming Neal for the murder of Lola Cannady. The grand jury did attempt to investigate the lynching, but was unable to obtain the name of any of the men involved.

I recently completed work on my new book on the 1934 outbreaks. The Claude Neal Lynching: The 1934 Murders of Lola Cannady and Claude Neal is now available in both print and Amazon Kindle formats. It can be ordered at the upper right of this page and also is available from Chipola River Book and Tea in Downtown Marianna.

The book is the first on the topic in nearly 30 years and includes never before published details about both the murder of Lola Cannady and subsequent lynching of Claude Neal. Included are the only interviews ever given by some of the men involved in the lynching, original crime scene photos from 1934 and a detailed analysis of the evidence linking Neal to Lola's murder and a history of the lynching that differs significantly from previous accounts due to the inclusion of a large amount of new source material.


To learn more about the Claude Neal lynching, please visit www.exploresouthernhistory.com/neallynching.

The St. Petersburg Times also released a story on the investigation today. You can read it here:

http://www.tampabay.com/features/humaninterest/article1197360.ece