An armed white mob in Texas massacred their black neighbors in 1910, and none of them were prosecuted

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harlie Wilson, Cleveland Larkin, and Willustus “Lusk” Holley were walking down a dirt road in rural Slocum, Texas when they were blindsided by a mob of armed white men. On their way to tend to family livestock on July 29, 1910, the three black teenagers became the first casualties of what would turn out to be a shameful massacre — with groups of white Texans going from road to road, house to house, shooting black citizens. Wilson and Holley survived the attack, but Larkin succumbed to the injuries.

The ensuing bloodshed lasted for at least two days, spilling to the south in Houston County. Black residents hastily gathered what belongings they could and escaped across creeks to wooded areas and marshes. Some families fled to the nearby town of Palestine, while others trekked farther. During the panic, they had no choice but to leave behind loved ones who’d been killed along the roads and in the woods of Slocum.

As the violence intensified, local officials turned to Texas Governor Thomas Campbell, and a company of U.S. cavalry troops and Texas Rangers were brought in to quell the situation.