09/01/2026
HE WAS SUPPOSED TO HAVE HIS DAY IN COURT.
On May 9, 1930, George Hughes, a 41-year-old Black farm worker, was brought to the Grayson County Courthouse in Sherman, Texas, after being accused of assaulting a white woman.
A large white mob had gathered outside.
The situation escalated until the mob set the courthouse on fire while Hughes was trapped inside a records vault.
When the mob eventually broke into the vault, Hughes was dead.
His body was then taken from the courthouse, dragged behind a car to Sherman’s Black business district, hanged from a tree and burned.
Then the violence spread.
Black-owned businesses were destroyed, including businesses belonging to Black professionals. Many Black residents fled their homes in fear.
Fourteen people were eventually indicted for crimes connected to the riot, but no one was charged with Hughes’s lynching or murder.
This photograph shows George Hughes before that violence, while he was still in custody.
His face remains. His story remains.
And the destruction of his community remains part of the historical record.
Support to keep HISTORA alive. The full archive is available at historalegacy.com.
We do not glorify violence. We reveal truth so history can’t repeat itself.
