In February 1893, Ida B. Wells stood before a crowd in Washington, D.C., and issued a warning.
The South, she said, was ruled by mobs. Black people were under attack from every direction. And lynching? That wasn’t justice. That was strategy. “Lynching is nothing more than an excuse to get rid of Negroes who are acquiring wealth and property.”
The very next day, her warning came true.
Newspapers across the country reported on a horrific lynching in Paris, Texas. A Black man named Henry Smith had been burned alive by a white mob. Thousands attended. They gouged his eyes. Poured hot oil on his skin. And then they set him on fire.
Wells was so disturbed, she hired a Pinkerton detective to investigate the lynching herself. But in Paris, Texas, the horror was already normalized. It wasn’t new. And it wasn’t over. Because somewhere in that same county, the Arthur family was watching. They were living under the same system. Witnessing the same terror. What horrified Wells in 1893—would happen again. This time, to the Arthurs. And it would be worse. Because this time, the fire didn’t just take one man. It came for an entire family.
Lamar County Before Emancipation
Long before the Civil War ended, Lamar County was already a place where white violence was normalized. The archives record one lynching of a man named Rube, an enslaved Black man tied to a tree and burned alive during the war. A mob used railroad planks to fuel the fire.
Reconstruction: White Terror and Black Resistance
After emancipation, Black Texans began organizing. Seeking land. Education. Political power. And Lamar County met them with force. In 1868, the Ku Klux Klan formed a chapter in Lamar County. Their goal was simple: destroy the gains of Reconstruction. They targeted Black communities and assassinated officials from the Freedmen’s Bureau. Some accounts refer to an “untold number” of Black people murdered during this time. Across Texas, an estimated 400 Black people were killed by white mobs during Reconstruction. Lamar County played its part.
Cotton, Resentment, and the 1890s Lynchings
After Reconstruction, cotton brought new money to Lamar County—and with it, new Black laborers. Many were migrants. Some were sharecroppers. Others began building small business communities. And that growth brought resentment.
In 1890, ten white men shot and killed a Black sharecropper named Andy Young. That same year, a man named Jack Baily was found hanged. In 1892, a white man named John Ashley murdered a Black sharecropper named Jarrett Burns over a debt. Authorities took no action. When members of the Black community organized and armed themselves to confront Ashley, white mobs retaliated. Black residents were whipped in the streets. A Black woman was nearly lynched. Three men who tried to protect her were lynched instead.
The message was clear: any act of Black self-defense would be met with white revenge.
A Quiet Tension: 1900 to 1920
In the early 20th century, Lamar County saw economic growth. Cotton boomed. Black families worked the land and opened small businesses. No major lynchings were recorded during this stretch. But peace doesn’t always mean safety.
In 1919, a race riot exploded in Longview—just 100 miles away. All across Texas, Black veterans were returning from World War I. They had fought for democracy. And now they were demanding dignity.
The Arthur family was one of those families.
They lived in the same county where Henry Smith had been burned. They labored under the same system that had protected John Ashley. They raised their children under the same fear.
And in 1920, when they finally said no— the mob came for them too.
What This History Leaves Us With
Lamar County didn’t just tolerate mob violence. It practiced it. Perfected it. Passed it down.
By the time Herman and Irving Arthur stood up to their white employer, the system already had a plan for men like them. And for families like theirs. If we remember their story without remembering this history, we miss the full truth.
Because before the fire came for the Arthurs— Lamar County had already been burning.
