
On June 20, 1921, Jesse Eley was returning from the market in Murfreesboro, North Carolina. He bought some grain for his cattle. He had two workers riding with him in his horse-drawn wagon. As he reached the outskirts of town, he entered a path that went into a wooded area. Several white men were hiding in the woods entrance waiting for him.
As his wagon entered the woods, the white men stopped Jesse. They began beating him and eventually hung him on a tree. Jesses workers took off running. One of them ran back to Jesses farm to let the family know what was happening. The family got a horse-drawn buggy and went to rescue him. By the time they got there, Jesse was barely alive. They found him because he raised one of his legs in the air to let them know where he was.
Jesse had a hole in his head, and his stomach was cut open. His throat was seizing up because of the hanging. As they put him into the buggy, he died; however, his intestines were still making a noise, which gave the family hope.
They took him into the town, but there was no doctor to be found. The Undertaker wrote the cause of death as “accidental team run away and threw him out of wagon” and that there was “no physician.” The family could not read or write and, therefore, did not know the cause of death was false.
Special thanks to cousin Donald Franklin Colvin for his help on his project.
Click on this link to go to pictures and documents: [https://www.geni.com/projects/Hanging-of-Jesse-Eley/media/4474936]
The following video was submitted to the EJI as part of evidence needed [https://vimeo.com/418232092]