Editing Shubuta, Mississippi (section)

====1918 lynchings====
In late December 1918, five weeks after the armistice was signed in the Great War, four black farmworkers were lynched and hanged from a railroad bridge in Shubuta. They were brothers, Major (age 20) and Andrew (age 16) Clark, along with two black sisters, Alma (age 16) and Maggie House (age 20) (their surname was sometimes spelled as "Howze"), allegedly for the murder of Dr. H. L. Johnston, a married white dentist who was living at his father's farm, where the four younger people all worked. Both sisters were pregnant: Maggie was six months pregnant and Alma was due in two weeks.<ref name="Cayton's"/> When the [[NAACP]] asked for a state investigation, their representative was told by Mississippi Governor [[Theodore Bilbo]] to "go to hell".<ref name="neu"/>

The NAACP contracted with Robert Church, a white detective from Memphis, Tennessee, to investigate the four lynchings. He learned that Johnston was fatally shot while milking on December 10, 1918. Major Clark had found him and carried him into the house. Johnston was said to have sexually assaulted and impregnated each of the House sisters.<ref name="sanctioned"/> After the Clark brothers started working on the farm, Major Clark and Maggie House developed a romantic relationship. Johnston the son had jealously threatened Clark, saying he would kill the young black man unless he ended his relationship with House. Johnston apparently had affairs with white women, too, and his father believed he had been shot by a white man,<ref name="sanctioned"/> as did others in town.<ref name="Cayton's"/>

The [[Lynching in the United States|lynching]] was documented as premeditated and coordinated, as many such events were. It was a year of white on black violence: in 1918 there had been 62 lynchings in the United States since January 1, seven of them in Mississippi.<ref name="bee">[https://statesanctioned.com/maggie-and-alma-house-major-and-andrew-clarke/ "Lynching an American Pastime"], ''Washington Bee'', January 4, 1919; posted at State Sanctioned website; accessed March 8, 2018</ref> Deputy County Sheriff Crane colluded with the mob to provide access to the victims at the jail, claiming that he had been overpowered by the mob. In addition, men cut off power to the town from the main station, perhaps to support witnesses' later claims of being unable to identify members of the mob.<ref name="sanctioned">{{cite web|title=Maggie and Alma House, Major and Andrew Clarke|url=https://statesanctioned.com/maggie-and-alma-house-major-and-andrew-clarke/|publisher=State Sanctioned website|access-date=December 26, 2017|date=August 6, 2015}}</ref>

The four young people were brutally treated. Maggie was smashed in the face with a wrench. All four were thrown from the bridge, but Maggie caught on to the bridge and survived the initial attempt on her life.<ref name="Cayton's">{{cite news|title=TOO NAUSEATING TO PUBLISH.|url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn87093353/1919-05-24/ed-1/seq-3.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170518033138/http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn87093353/1919-05-24/ed-1/seq-3.pdf |archive-date=May 18, 2017 |url-status=live|access-date=December 26, 2017|newspaper=Cayton's Weekly (Seattle, Washington), reprinted from the May Crisis|date=May 24, 1919}}, ''Chronicling America'', Library of Congress</ref> When she was thrown from the bridge a second time, she again grabbed a railing. The mob hauled her up a third time, and were finally successful in throwing her over and hanging her. When the victims were buried the next day, witnesses reported seeing Alma House's unborn baby moving in the womb.<ref name="Pittsburgh">{{cite news|title=Shubuta, Mississippi|url=http://www.pressreader.com/usa/pittsburgh-post-gazette/20161228/281715499279989|work=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette| access-date=December 26, 2017|date=December 28, 2016}}</ref>