It's a ghastly scene. On the night of the 7th of August 1930, Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith - two black teens who have been arrested as suspects in a robbery- are taken forcibly from jail by a mob armed with sledgehammers then lynched before the eyes of a gawping, grinning, cheering crowd. It's an event captured in all its horror by local photographer Lawrence Beitler who prints off hundreds of copies over the next few days, the awful image travelling as far and wide as New York City where Abel Meeropol, a teacher with communist leanings, can't get it out of his head.
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