The Winston-Salem Riot of 1895: Part 2—The Trial of Arthur Tuttle

Western Sentinel, 15 Aug 2024, 3

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​Part 1
Part 3

Most accounts of the riot fail to understand that it took place during the trial while the court was in recess for Sunday, August 11. The trial was quite rapid. Indictment, trial, and conviction took just a week. Tuttle was brought back to town on Sunday, August 4, and indicted the next day. On Friday, August 9, the jury was selected, the lawyers made their opening statements, and testimony began. On Saturday, the testimony of witnesses wrapped up and closing statements began. The riot took place late Sunday evening into the early hours of Monday, August 12. Later on Monday, the closing statements were completed, the judge issued his charge to the jury, and jury deliberations began. After brief deliberations, the jury returned a verdict the next morning, finding Tuttle guilty of second-degree murder.
 
It was the jury’s responsibility, based on the evidence, to determine the nature of the crime, if there was one, as well as the guilt of the accused. Jury members could have chosen premeditated murder, which carried the death penalty; second degree murder, which as of 1894 was no longer a capital crime in North Carolina but had a maximum sentence of 30 years; manslaughter; or justifiable homicide.
 
The courthouse was small. It did not have a room for trial juries, so the jury may have deliberated on the courthouse green. The courtroom was hot. After selection of the jury, the judge delayed opening statements to allow for the installation of electric fans in the courtroom. The courthouse was noisy because of heavy traffic on the street; earlier in the week, the judge had requested the authorities to require the streetcars and drays to drive slower.
 
Arthur Tuttle benefited from a first-class defense team. Often, African Americans faced serious charges without any representation, but the local churches had contributed $500 for his defense. Three prominent out-of-town lawyers represented Tuttle at the trial, two Republicans and a Democrat. His fourth lawyer was a rising young lawyer in Winston, apparently a Democrat. The white supremacist newspapers stirred up controversy over how the defense funds were raised and the selection of the jury.
 
In-text references are to the chapter and page number of the fifth edition of Ida Beard’s My Own Life. That edition has been published online by Documenting the American South and is the basis of my annotated edition.
 
Indictment. Tuttle was brought back to Winston on Sunday, August 4, and on Monday, as the Union Republican reported, "​the Grand Jury returned a true bill for murder.… Monday evening Col. Boyd [the lead defense lawyer] read a lengthy document, the substance of which was that public setiment [sic] here was such that his client could not secure a fair trial and His Honor was asked to remove the case to some other county. The State was given until next day to reply and did so. His Honor after due consideration decided not to remove the case…. " (1)

This decision turned out to be a mistake, as the court would acknowledge. (2)
 
The prosecutors and defenders. The state was represented by R. B. Glenn and Clement Manly, partners, and by J. C. Buxton (Buxton’s partner, C. B. Watson, refused to prosecute capital cases) (3); Solicitor Mott was excused to prepare for prosecuting another murder trial scheduled for the same session of court. (4) Tuttle was defended by four white lawyers—James E. Boyd and John N. Staples, both from Greensboro; by Jeff S. Grogan, from Winston; and by Thomas Settle, from Reidsville. The three out-of-town lawyers were prominent, and Grogan was considered a rising man in the profession.
 
On the prosecution team, Robert B. Glenn had moved his practice to Winston in 1885, where he continued to support Democratic causes and candidates. He served in the Forsyth Rifles (1890-1893) and as U.S. attorney for the western district of North Carolina (1893-1897). At the end of the century he spoke widely in favor of disenfranchising black voters, and he later served as governor and avid supporter of Prohibition. He and his partner, along with Buxton and Watson, had successfully defended Officer Hasten from the charge of murdering Walter Tuttle. (5)
 
Clement Manly began his legal career in his hometown, New Bern, but in 1890 he moved to Winston-Salem and entered partnership with R. B. Glenn, a partnership which lasted till Glenn became governor in 1905. A Democrat, Manly never sought public office and only once, in the 1896 presidential campaign, served in an official party position. (6)
 
J. C. Buxton served in many local and state positions—alderman, mayor, chairman of the school board (for twenty-six years), member of the State Senate, president of the Winston Water Works, and banker. (7)
 
Two of the lawyers for the defense were Republicans. Thomas Settle of Reidsville was a sitting member of the House of Representatives at the time of the trial (he lost his bid for reelection in 1896). (8) Col. Boyd of Greensboro had been a member of the General Assembly and the U.S. attorney for the Western District of North Carolina and was elected mayor of Greensboro in 1894. (9) The other two members of the defense team were prominent Democrats. Col. John N. Staples, a veteran of the Civil War, was a prominent lawyer from Greensboro, active in state politics for the Democratic Party and a former member of the State House and Senate; for many years he was chief counsel for the Richmond and Danville (later, Southern) Railway. (10) Jeff Grogan was the most junior lawyer on either side—he had begun practice in 1884—and the only local attorney on the defense team; for that reason, probably, he represented the defense team in selecting the jury. He seems to have been an active Democrat; a year earlier, he had spoken at a meeting of the Winston Democratic Club. (11) At this period he often represented African Americans in court, sometimes those not popular with the white community. (12) As we will see below, his work on the Tuttle trial was criticized by the white supremacists of his own party, but this accusation does not seem to have harmed his career.
 
At least three African American lawyers were practicing in Winston-Salem at the time—John S. Fitts, James S. Lanier, and A. R. Bridges (or Bridgers)—but they were not called on publicly to assist in the case. (13) However, in the trials that followed the riot of Sunday, August 11, Fitts, Lanier, and Bridges represented several of the defendants. (14)
 
Paying for Tuttle’s defense. It was common after Reconstruction for African Americans to face charges in court, even capital charges, without legal representation. It is a mark of the support of Arthur Tuttle in the African American community that the defense could afford such fine representation, though none of them had the local clout of Buxton and Glenn, who prosecuted for the state. (15) The racial politics of the times are evident in the brief controversy that was stoked by the Western Sentinel and the Twin-City Daily Sentinel. It apparently began with a report in the Daily Sentinel:

"A respectable colored man gives out that no less than $500 was raised by his color to defend Arthur Tuttle. This money, he says, was raised by giving festivals and soliciting contributions. The cash from the festivals, it was understood at the time, was to go for church work. It is also stated that Col. Boyd is to get $200 of the money for his work—and $100 additional if Tuttle is cleared. The other $200, it appears, is to be divided between Messrs. Settle, Grogan and Staples…." (16)
 
Though intended to delegitimize Tuttle’s right to a defense, the attack provides valuable information. The Union Republican’s response to this attack did not address the particulars, but confirmed the substance of the report and defended the right of African Americans to support the defense of Tuttle:
it is not only legitimate but it is the custom, proper and right for friends to contribute of their private funds for attorney fees in cases like Tuttle's. It was done in [the] Shemwald-Payne trial [earlier that summer] and in others. But an Attorney of the highest standing tells us that the City of Winston through her Board of Aldermen had no legal right to appropriate funds from the City Treasury to pay Mr. Glenn or any other attorney to prosecute the case; and, if any citizen were to enjoin the payment of such so appropriated, the courts would sustain the injunction. (17)
 
The charge that African American churches had misused church funds nevertheless seemed to have stung, for two of them—St. Paul Methodist Episcopal Church and the First Baptist Church—published notices stating that no church funds had been used to support Tuttle. (18) In raising funds for their buildings, the black churches often looked to their “white friends” for support, so the charge by the newspaper could have seen as threatening the relationship. So far as I can tell from the newspapers at my disposal, none of other churches published similar disclaimers, including the St. James African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, the African Methodist Episcopal Zion (AMEZ) Church (the congregation now called Golers AMEZ), Lloyd Presbyterian Church, Cleveland Avenue Christian Church, Saints Home Methodist Church, or any of the four or five other black Baptist congregations then in existence. (19)
 
Friday, August 9: Selecting the Jury. The trial opened on the morning of Friday, August 9, with selection of the jury. The process for picking the jury was impugned by the article in the Twin-City Daily Sentinel cited above. Jurors were drawn from two venires, the regular traverse jury pool, which provided five of the jurors, and a special venire of 125, which provided the remaining seven. All of those chosen lived outside the city limits of Winston and Salem. So far as I can determine, all were white men. (20) The paper wrote that John Reynolds, the leader of the local Republican party, may have been paid “a fee [by the African American churches] for prompting Mr. Grogan in the selection of a jury”: that is, the process was alleged to be partisan and corrupt. Grogan’s work in selecting the jury also attracted the criticism of Ida Beard. Grogan was, My Own Life demonstrates, a friend and crony of Ida’s husband, John Lewis Beard. Beard was a popular figure around town—a witty and amusing auctioneer, a one-time writer of comic columns in the local newspapers, a sportsman and entrepreneur who kept his name in the papers. At this time he was serving in the office of a justice of the peace and, Ida claims, was involved in the selection of the jury: “for the small sum of $25 [John] swore to a falsehood and selected the jurors in the Tuttle case” (VI, 102).

Her accusation is not accurate as stated: as noted above, the jurors were selected in open court from the two jury pools; a total of approximately 92 potential jurors were examined during the selection process. However, it is possible that John offered advice to Grogan; perhaps his wide acquaintance among his fellow citizens gave him insight into those who would weigh the evidence fairly. Beard may have offered much more than advice, for example, by manipulating the pools of jurors to include more Republicans or jurors known to be relatively sympathetic to African Americans. The role of JP changed frequently in the last thirty years of the nineteenth century in North Carolina (there were significant changes in this same year, 1895), but I do not know what role they had in calling jurors from the pool, nor have I found how the pools in this trial (or any trial) would have been constructed. At this point, I can only report Ida’s accusation with my reservations. (21)
 
Once the jury was empaneled, R. B. Glenn read the indictment. Judge G. H. Brown “then instructed the Jury as to the importance of their duty especially so in view of the interest manifested in this case, and that both sides were entitled to a fair and impartial hearing” (22); he told the jury not to discuss the case among themselves “until they had heard the evidence, the speeches of counsel and the charge of the court.” The Western Sentinel added the judge’s statement that “the prisoner is entitled to the same consideration as if he was the most important personage in the State.” (23)
 
Friday, August 9: Opening Statements and Testimony. The court adjourned till 3 p.m., a longer than usual recess to give the Sheriff time to install, on the judge’s order, one or two electric fans to alleviate the intense heat in the small courtroom. The courtroom was also noisy because of “the rumbling of street cars, drays, and vehicles” on Fourth Street. On the Monday before the trial, as the grand jury sat to consider the indictment of Tuttle, Judge Brown had “requested that the Sheriff endeavor to have conveyances move at a moderate gait while passing Fourth Street, north of the Court House,” and this seems to have helped to some extent. (24) This order was presumably still in effect during the trial. Because there was no jury room in the courthouse for trial juries (called traverse juries), the jurors held their deliberations on the courthouse green. (25) It did not rain while the Tuttle jury was out, on Monday evening and Tuesday morning (August 12-13), but apparently rain had affected jury deliberations the previous week. (26)
 
Beyond the fear of lynching, the African American community seemed to have three specific reasons for doubting that Tuttle would be treated fairly. First, many seem to have believed that, when Tuttle was physically moved off the sidewalk, Officer Dean had kicked him or used unnecessary force, and that Tuttle had responded in self-defense; this was also the position taken by the lawyers for the defense. (27) Second, it was rumored that the fatal shots were fired by Deputy Sheriff Martin, a report that seems to have spread almost immediately after the incident. (28) Finally, at least some were certain that no weapon was found on Tuttle at the time of the shooting; this was asserted by R. B. Garrett, a correspondent from Greensboro, in a May 25 letter to a prominent out-of-state African American newspaper, the Richmond (VA) Planet (29), and it may explain the theory of the case argued by Jeff Grogan, a lawyer on the defense team (see below). As we compare accounts of the trial, and newspaper accounts at the time of the shooting, we should keep these concerns in mind.
 
The first witness called by the prosecution was A. Alexander Dean of the Winston police. He testified that he, Policeman Vickers, and Deputy Sheriff Martin had just come from police headquarters following the acquittal of Policeman Hasten for murdering Walter Tuttle. The time was 5:00 or 5:30. In the first accounts of the fight, back in May, both the Union Republican and the Western Sentinel had stated that Vickers was returning from jail after escorting a thief there and that the time was 6:30 or 6:40. Neither Martin nor Dean is mentioned at this point in the original newspaper accounts.
 
All the accounts agree that the streets were crowded as they usually were at that time on Saturdays. Dean now testified as to what happened next:

"Vickers called attention [to the crowded sidewalk] and he saw [a white] lady come off [the] sidewalk, which was blocked; Tuttle was in [the] crowd; Dean spoke to [the] crowd, saying we are sworn officers and it is our duty to keep the sidewalks clear and asked [the] crowd to leave [the] pathway open. Tuttle said he’d move when “he damned got ready.” Dean took him by the arm and put him off [the] sidewalk." (30)
 
In the original report of the event on 23 May, the Western Sentinel stated that that crowd in the street was African American and that it was Vickers who “pushed [Tuttle] back” (31); the Union Republican agreed at that time that it was Vickers who had pushed Tuttle off of the sidewalk. (32) In the account of the trial published in the Western Sentinel, Dean continued:

"Tuttle turned and put his hand to his pocket and said something not remembered. Dean took hold of Tuttle and pulled him to his arms to see if he was armed; he had no weapon in his back pocket; Tuttle flounced away from him; Vickers took hold of him, he jerked loose and partly fell. Tuttle struck Vickers, knocking him down, and turned towards Dean, who struck him a glancing lick, knocking him on one knee. Dean caught hold of him; Tuttle began to fire; before he [Dean] could grab him he fired again; heard Vickers say, 'Lord, I’m shot.' Respass run up and grabbed the pistol; there was a scuffle; took pistol away from Tuttle. (33) Respass took the pistal [sic]. On the way to jail, Tuttle said, 'What are you taking me to jail for?' Dean replied, 'You don’t know[?]' Tuttle said no more." (34)
 
The Union Republican gave a similar description of Dean’s testimony, with some differences in the details:

"Tuttle turned and reached in his hip pocket as if for a pistol. Dean took hold of him again to see if he was armed. . . . Tuttle jerked away and Vickers grabbed him. He struck Vickers and knocked him down, and in turn Dean tumbled Tuttle and gathered him. As Tuttle raised [sic] he fired twice in quick succession. Vickers exclaimed, 'Lord, I’m shot.' Both balls had taken effect. Respass and Martin came up, the [f]ormer took [the] pistol from Tuttle, and he was overpowered and carried to jail. Told Tuttle to come along." (35)
 
Dean provided important information in the cross-examination: “I did not kick him and nobody kicked him that I saw.” (36) Dean’s response seems to confirm the existence of a rumor (and perhaps an accurate observation) that one of the officers had roughed up Tuttle in removing him from the sidewalk. Dean continued:

"[I] don’t remember that he said he had done nothing; he didn’t get back on [the] sidewalk after he was put off; he turned on me and made [an] attempt to get a weapon; I didn’t [give] him [the] chance to draw a weapon. Tuttle was trying to get his weapon and to keep us from getting it; it appeared that the weapon was in his right hand front pocket. Vickers never struck Tuttle. I struck him once, a glancing blow. Tuttle struck Vickers with his fist and knocked him down." (37)
 
The next witness was Deputy Sheriff Frank A. Martin. It appears that one purpose of his testimony was to refute reports that Tuttle had been roughly treated; he stated that “Tuttle was put off sidewalk gently; he was not kicked.” As summarized by the newspaper, Martin did not indicate which officer removed Tuttle. “The first time I saw Dean hit” Tuttle, said Martin, was "after Tuttle fired and started to run. Tuttle tried to get away when he found they were about to find a pistol on him. I didn’t pull my pistol until after the firing. I pulled it then, by Ned, to help Vickers. I did not fire. Showed my pistol to Mr. Grogan (now one of the counsel for the defense) and he saw it had not been fired." (38)

In this way, the prosecution also endeavored to refute the rumors that Tuttle was not armed and that Martin had fired the fatal shots. But I wonder if anyone in the courtroom believed that Tuttle had been moved “gently.” 
 
Another eyewitness—the last called on Friday, August 9—was F. A. Hine, originally from Iredell County:

"Hine was clerking at [William] Messick’s [store, in the Municipal Building, on] Saturday afternoon, 18th May. I came out of store to get some cabbage that were on the front. Heard Tuttle say, search me. Saw two policemen searching Tuttle; saw them reach in [his] hip pockets, when they started to [search the] front pockets, Tuttle jerked loose and knocked Vickers across a crate of cabbage. Dean struck Vickers with a billy and knocked him down on his knee. Saw pistol in Tuttle’s hand and soon heard two pistol shots. First shot struck Vickers in the neck. Heard Vickers say, 'Oh, I’m shot.'" (39)
 
The final witness, Captain T. W. Farrish, testified on Saturday morning. (40) Over the objections of the defense, he was allowed to report his recollection of Vickers’ dying statement:

"A crowd was standing in the street; ladies passing had to get off the sidewalk; some got off, some remained. Tuttle cut up. [Vickers] went back and told Tuttle that the request was small and if he didn’t stop he would lock him up. He (Vickers) went back and saw Dean trying to lead Tuttle off. When he went back Tuttle struck him (Vickers), knocked him down and shot him twice while he was down." (41)
 
Tuttle did not testify on his own behalf; indeed, the defense called no witnesses.
 
Saturday, August 10, and Monday, August 12. The rest of the trial—on Saturday after 11 a.m. and on Monday, after the Sunday night riot—consisted of the closing arguments of the prosecution and defense. The first argument was made by Col. John N. Staples, for the defense:

"He said although the prisoner was from an humble race, unlettered, he had same rights as others before the law. The humbler a man, the harder his chances in any sphere of life. We are born with prejudice. We had rather help out one of our own race.… We all have that feeling, but there are times when this prejudice should be laid aside and justice administered. He wanted the same justice that would be administered to the wisest and best man in the community if indicted of a crime. He argued that the killing of Vickers was not murder in either degree, nor manslaughter, but was self-defense—that there was not premeditation and no malice." (42)
 
J. C. Buxton followed for the prosecution:

"As a representative of the State, he wished to say, as far as the race question was concerned, this was no place for this question to be discussed. Newspapers and politicians have that privilege. It was unnecessary for counsel to bring this question to the attention of the jury, because this jury was above anything of that kind when it comes to administering justice. He conceded to the prisoner the same rights accorded any one and required of him the same obedience to the laws of the country. He didn’t ask for any verdict different than if this man’s skin was white. Mr. Buxton proceeded to argue that the killing was murder in the first degree." (43)
 
In his argument to the jury, on Monday morning, lawyer Jeff Grogan proposed a theory of the case to support the self-defense argument:

"His theory was that Tuttle did not have the pistol in either his hip or front pocket, but that it was in an inside coat pocket, or in his shirt, and that during the scuffle the pistol fell to the ground; that Dean and Tuttle both were trying to secure it and that both had hold of it when it was fired." (44)

Ida Beard believed that her husband, John Beard, helped Grogan with his speech, so perhaps the theory was in part Beard’s, too. Ida also charged John with purloining North Carolina law books from the office of the city prosecutor, L. M. Swink, to provide to the defense (V, 99; VI, 101). She by now believed her husband to be a man of poor character, a deceiver and a liar whose professions of love were meaningless. She idolized her cousin, Major Newton Crumpler, an officer in the Confederate cavalry killed in the Sevens Days Battle, and she would later prove a staunch supporter of the Lost Cause (45); if we can credit her account, her husband mocked her worship of Major Crumpler (III, 54-55), as well as the “white rascals” whom he thought planning to lynch Tuttle (VI, 103). Her marital history and racial ideology did not equip her to credit her husband with laudable motives for assisting in Tuttle’s defense, even if some of his methods were questionable. Like many southern whites at the time, Ida feared being ruled by African Americans. During the trial of Arthur Tuttle, she was angry that her husband was helping the defense: “‘John, you must not forget that you have two boys in this city who may at some future day be trampled upon, and all on account of the doings of you, their father’” (VI, 103).
 
Sunday, August 11: The Riot. See Part 3.
 
Monday, August 13: The Jury Deliberates. The jury received the case between 5 and 5:30 on Monday evening and returned their verdict the following morning at the opening of the court. They probably deliberated on the courthouse green, like other traverse juries in Winston at that time (see above). The sun set a little after 7:30 that evening and rose shortly before 6 the next morning; how long the jury deliberated was not reported in the papers, but it could not have been more than a few hours. (46) The jurors found Tuttle guilty of murder in the second degree.
 
Although Tuttle did not testify on his own behalf, Jailer Ziglar was asked by the prosecution during the sentencing phase to repeat a conversation he had had with Tuttle:

"Jailor [sic] Ziglar, being sworn said that when Tuttle was being taken back to jail after the jury had rendered their verdict, Mr. Martin asked him how he liked the verdict. He said he didn’t like it and he asked Martin what he thought of it and Martin said he thought it was light. Tuttle remarked that they didn’t put the officer on the stand that he struck. Said he struck Hasten." (47)

Hasten was the officer who had been acquitted of killing Tuttle’s brother, Walter. When Tuttle hit Vickers with his fist, probably in the mouth, it was with such force that the officer fell across a crate of cabbage. Tuttle thought he was striking his brother’s killer. It was a mighty blow against perceived injustice, but it landed on the wrong man and led to another unjust death. (48)
 
The sentence. Tuttle was convicted by the jury of second-degree murder and sentenced by the judge to twenty-five years at hard labor (just five years fewer than the maximum sentence), with the possibility of release in 17 or 18 years for good behavior. In 1913, Tuttle would have been 37 years of age. A few years after the conviction, the black community began a petition drive to obtain his pardon, but nothing seems to have come of it. (49)
 
Following the riot, some acknowledged that the trial should have been held in a different venue:
Developments since the case opened indicate that a removal of the [case to another venue] would have been proven the most prudent policy, but at the time His Honor and the Court deemed it best to try the accused in the county in which the tragedy occurred and there has since been general acquiescence. It is not from a belief that justice could not be obtained in Forsyth that the expression of removal is based but in the light of subsequent manifestations which would have been most fortunately avoided. (50)

NOTES
(1) “Forsyth Superior Court: A Big Docket to be Disposed of – Charge of Judge Brown, The Two Murder Cases – Other Points of Interest,” Union Republican, 8 Aug 1895, 3.
(2) “Superior Court. Two Murder Cases the Center of Interest,” Union Republican, 15 Aug 1895, 3.
(3) For a brief biography of John Cameron Buxton (30 September 1852 – 26 April 1917; LY4Q-SLZ), see NCPedia, s.v., C. Sylvester Green, “Buxton, John Cameron.”
For Cyrus Barksdale Watson (14 January 1844 – 11 November 1916; LTYY-3JG), see NCPedia, s.v., Thomas H. Johnson, Jr., “Watson, Cyrus Barksdale.” See below for his role in passing an anti-lynching law in North Carolina.
(4) Marshall Lockhart Mott (28 May 1860 – 10 March 1936; L23P-ZFN) was elected solicitor for the judicial district in the last five years or so of the 19th-century. Although he did not prosecute the case against Tuttle, he did prosecute the rioters. His membership in the Republican Party was well-known; the Durham Sun blamed him for the many acquittals and reduced or suspended sentences for the rioters, a story reprinted by the Western Sentinel (29 Aug 1895, 2).
Perhaps because of his sensitivity to the rights of minorities, Mott later became a lawyer for the Creek Nation in the Indian Territory. See “Solicitor Mott at Taylorsville,” Union Republican, 31 Jan 1895, 2; “Died,” Union Republican, 10 Sept 1908, 7; “Governor Haskell Wants Marshall Mott Removed,” Twin-City Daily Sentinel, 27 May 1909, 6.
(5) For a brief biography of Robert Brodnax Glenn (11 August 1854 - 16 May 1920; 9XP8-PVZ), see NCPedia, s.v. Michael Hill, “Robert Brodnax Glenn.”
(6) Clement Manly (15 March 1853 – 26 November 1928; 93LQ-YFH). See “Clement Manly Dies at Age of 75,” News and Observer (Raleigh, NC), 27 Nov 1928, 2.
(7) For a biographical sketch, see NCPedia, s.v. C. Sylvester Green, “Buxton, John Cameron.”
(8) For a brief biography of Thomas A. Settle (10 March 1865 – 20 January 1919; KHTF-M97), Wikipedia, s.v. “Thomas Settle (North Carolina, 53rd-54th Congress).”
(9) NCPedia, s.v. Horace Alexander Hester, “Boyd, James Edmund.”
(10) For a sketch of the life of John Norman Staples (13 June 1846 – 13 December 1920; 9795-3MH), see his obituary, “Guilford Bar Honors Memory of Col. John Norman Staples,” Greensboro (NC) Daily News, 2 May 1921, 7.
(11) “Winston Democracy,” Western Sentinel, 25 Oct 1894, 1.
Grogan was from Rockingham County but came to Winston-Salem with his family around 1876 (“Death of Mr. J.S. Grogan; Funeral Today," Western Sentinel, 22 Dec 1911, 1; "Death Comes to Mr. Grogan,” Winston-Salem Journal, 21 December 1911, 1). His father’s service in Forsyth County as a justice of the peace perhaps gave Grogan a taste for the law (“List of Magistrates for Forsyth County,” Western Sentinel, 15 Mar 1877, 3). He received his license to practice from the state Supreme Court early in 1884 (“Young Lawyers,” The Winston Leader, 12 Feb 1884, 3). Grogan was also a businessman, engaging in several minor ventures with Ida’s husband, John Lewis Beard (“Local News,” Union Republican, 9 May 1895, 3). For a brief biography, see “Jefferson Scales ‘Jeff’ Grogan,” Findagrave.com.
(12) For example, he represented several men charged in association with the riot (“Trial of the Rioters,” Western Sentinel, 22 Aug 1895, 1). Grogan later defended Arthur’s brother, Will, when he was accused of assault and robbery (“Bound Over to Court,” Western Sentinel, 25 Nov 1897, 3).
I have not found evidence that Grogan ever represented Walter Tuttle. He successfully defended Sim Brannon for his part in the attack on a white farmer, Mack Nelson (Walter was convicted for his role), but Brannon was an outspoken Democrat and popular with the Western Sentinel (“That Cutting Affair. The Parties to the Affair Bound Over to Court this Morning,” Western Sentinel, 19 May 1892, 3; “Sim, the Faithful, is Dead,” Union Republican, 22 April 1897, 1).
(13) Immediately after the Tuttle trial, Fitts and Lanier were the prosecuting attorneys in the trial of Bud Cunningham, accused of murdering Leonora Hailey. This was a less fraught case. Both Cunningham and Hailey were African Americans, and the newspapers reported that Cunningham was thought to be guilty by the African American community. “Trial of Cunningham,” Western Sentinel, 15 Aug 1895, 3.
(14) “Forsyth Court. Tuttle Gets 25 Years and Cunningham 15 Years,” Union Republican, 22 August 1895, 3.
Lanier (16 Se1ptember 1870 – 11 February 1960) worked in a tobacco factory in the summers to pay his way through Shaw University and Lincoln University; he received his LL.B. in 1895 from Shaw. He became a teacher at Winston’s Depot St. School for African Americans and received his license to practice law in February 1895 (“Local News,” Union Republican, 7 Feb 1895, 3; A. B. Caldwell, ed. History of the American Negro, 1921; North Carolina edition; Illustrated; Volume IV, 160-2). See also “James Sanders Lanier,” Findagrave.com.
Fitts (16 December 1864 - 7 July 1938; LYNF-Y69) was politically ambitious at this period; in 1892, for example, he broke with the white Republicans to run a slate of black candidates at the local level (“The Negroes Pull Out: The White Republicans Refuse to Recognize Them—Two County Tickets Nominated,” Western Sentinel, 22 September 1892, 2). But once the Red Shirt campaigns and constitutional changes at the end of the century made a political career impossible for African Americans, he became a businessman, notably as the first president of the Winston Industrial Association, later the Winston Mutual Insurance Company (“Historic Marker Program: Winston Mutual Life Insurance Company.”) See also “John Shepherd Fitts,” Findagrave.com.
Aaron R. Bridgers, Jr., also known as A. R. Bridges (1856 - 21 December 1929; G3ZC-M6N), was born in Edgecombe County, NC; before coming to Winston-Salem to practice law, he taught in the Colored Teachers Institute in Tarboro, in Edgecombe County (“Colored Institute,” The (Tarboro, NC) Farmer's Advocate, 29 June 1892, 3). In 1890, he was named as a census enumerator in Tarboro, along with other African Americans, appointments that aroused the ire of the local white supremacist newspaper editor (“Outrageous,” The Tarborough (NC) Southerner, 5 June 1890, 3).
In 1895, Bridgers represented some of the men arrested for participation in the August riot. He may have been newly arrived in town, since the newspaper writers did not know his given name (“Forsyth Court. Tuttle Gets 25 Years,” Union Republican, 22 Aug 1895, 3). In 1898, his office was located at 317 Main Street in Winston, and in that year he was one of three prosecuting attorneys who assisted Solicitor Mott in the prosecution of Robert Stevens for the murder of Isom Harris (“Superior Court,” Winston Weekly Journal, 3 Dec 1898, 1).
(15) However, many of the African Americans tried for riot at the jail on the night of Sunday, August 11, had no legal representation at their trial (“Forsyth Court. Tuttle Gets 25 Years and Cunningham 15 Years,” Union Republican, 22 Aug 1895, 3).
(16) Qtd. in “How Money Was Raised,” Union Republican, 15 Aug 1895, 2.
(17) “How Money Was Raised,” Union Republican, 15 Aug 1895, 2.
(18) “St. Paul Raised No Money for Tuttle,” Western Sentinel, 15 Aug 1895, 3; “Around the Twin-City,” Western Sentinel, 22 August 1895, 3.
(19) St. James AME Church, under the direction of Pastor W. E. Walker, held fundraisers in May to help pay off his congregation’s debt. Every African American church in town was said to have participated, and the Rev. Walker invited “white friends” to attend the sessions at Brown’s Opera House (“Religious Rally by the Colored People,” Union Republican, 9 May 1895, 3).
(20) “Superior Court. Two Murder Cases the Center of Interest,” Union Republican, 15 August 1895, 3.
In 1881, the first African American alderman in Winston, Israel Clements (about 1848 - 2 April 1882; LJK9-L8W), organized an effort to seek more African American representation on juries (“Public Meeting,” Union Republican, 2 March 1882, 3; “Commissioner Court Briefs,” Winston Leader, 14 March 1882, 3). I have not been able to find what came of that effort, but I have the impression that African Americans were rarely selected as jurors during this period.
In addition to the jurors, judge, and lawyers, another official present was Prof. T. E. Whitaker, of Oak Ridge. He was hired by the County Commissioners to “take the evidence of the witnesses in short hand” (“Forsyth Superior Court: A Big Docket to be Disposed of – Charge of Judge Brown, The Two Murder Cases – Other Points of Interest,” Union Republican, 8 August 1895, 3); at the end of trial, just before the judge’s charge, he reread all the testimony to the jury (“Superior Court. The Tuttle Murder Case,” Union Republican, 15 August 1895, 3). So far as I know, Whitaker’s record does not survive.
(21) James W. Narron, Esq. and John R. Hess, “A Brief History of Judicial Reform and the District Court in North Carolina,” 3-5. We know from the history of Jim Crow that jury pools were often tampered with, usually to exclude African Americans, and this was certainly true in Winston-Salem. See United States Commission on Civil Rights. North Carolina Advisory Committee. Equal Protection of the Laws In North Carolina: Report of the North Carolina Advisory Committee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights. Washington, D.C.: U.S. G.P.O., 1962, 55-56. See also Rob Christensen, The Paradox of Tar Heel Politics: The Personalities, Elections, and Events that Shaped Modern North Carolina (UNC, 2008), 10-11. UPDATE (16 Nov 2024): Further reading suggests that the names of those in the jury pool were placed in a box; members of a jury were drawn at random from the box. The sheriff was in charge of drawing the names. I have not discovered the process for creating the jury pool.
(22) “Tuttle Murder Trial: Report of Evidence as Given for the State,” Western Sentinel, 15 Aug 1895, 1.
(23) “Tuttle Murder Trial.”
(24) “Forsyth Superior Court: A Big Docket to be Disposed of – Charge of Judge Brown, The Two Murder Cases,” Union Republican, 8 August 1895, 3.
George H. Brown, Jr. (3 May 1850 – 16 March 1926; LH8C-BD7) was born in Washington, NC; he was appointed as a judge of Superior Court in 1889 and won election as Associate Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court in 1904. For a biographical sketch, see “George Hubbard Brown: Associate Justice - NC Supreme Court” (https://www.carolana.com/NC/Courts/ghbrown.html).
(25) “Forsyth Superior Court: A Big Docket to be Disposed of – Charge of Judge Brown, The Two Murder Cases,” Union Republican, 8 Aug 1895, 3.
(26) [no headline], Western Sentinel (22 Aug 1895, 2). A new courthouse was erected in 1897 (Reynoldstown Historic District).
(27) Aurelius Alexander Dean, known as A. A. or Alex (9 June 1851 – 21 June 1919; KFKR-1PM), later retired from the police and became a “transfer man,” that is, a hack owner and driver. “Death and Funeral of Mr. A. A. Dean,” Western Sentinel, 24 June 1919, 7.
(28) “Two Fatal Bullets: Policeman M. M. Vickers Loses His Life While in the Performance of His Duties,” Union Republican, 23 May 1895, 3.
Martin was Frank Agustus Martin, Sr. (27 March 1854 - 24 March 1918; GSBP-X55). He served at various times as deputy sheriff, policeman, and sanitary policeman (“Mr. F. A. Martin Died Yesterday,” Winston-Salem Journal, 25 March 1918, 3). Martin was an obvious target of suspicion because of the fear he aroused in the African American community, as demonstrated by an article published eleven years later: “Mr. Martin is a ‘holy terror’ to most the Negroes of this town. He knows everyone by name….” His name was used by mothers, the article says, to frighten their children into behaving. (“Notes and Comments,” Western Sentinel, 4 Oct 1906, 4). He could also be brutal on occasion with whites: on election day in 1896, Martin struck the editor-in-chief of the Union Republican with a cane and pistol, possibly because of a one-sentence editorial the paper had published in October: “Vote for Sheriff McArthur and keep cousin Frank Martin in a job” (“Editorial Paragraphs,” Union Republican, 15 Oct 1896, 2).
(29) “Meant Business: Colored Men Rally in North Carolina. Tuttle Defended—Manhood Rights Maintained,” Richmond Planet, 1 June 1895, 1. I have been unable to find any biographical information on R. B. Garrett.
(30) “Tuttle Murder Trial: Report of Evidence as Given for the State,” Western Sentinel, 15 August 1895, 1.
(31) “Horrible Affair! How Policeman Vickers Lost His Life,” Western Sentinel, 23 May 1895, 1.
(32) “Two Fatal Bullets: Policeman M. M. Vickers Loses His Life While in the Performance of His Duties,” Union Republican, 23 May 1895, 3.
(33) Jerry Respass (15 September 1867 - 4 August 1947; LD3D-HSH) was, according to Fam Brownlee, superintendent of the city water works (“Murder, Rumors of Murder and Even More Rumors”). Later, he seemed to have worked primarily as a surveyor. He surveyed the route of many railways in North Carolina, timberlands in Surry and Wilkes counties, and the Methodist Colony in Black Mountain, NC. See “The Mooresville and Mocksville,” Western Sentinel, 4 August 1898, 1; “New Railroad Projected,” Winston-Salem Journal, 26 May 1907, 3); “Surveying Timber Lands,” Twin-City Daily Sentinel, 4 April 1913, 10; “Methodist Colony at Black Mountain,” Western Sentinel, 30 December 1913, 7.
(34) “Tuttle Murder Trial: Report of Evidence as Given for the State,” Western Sentinel, 15 August 1895, 1.
(35) “Superior Court. The Tuttle Murder Case,” Union Republican, 15 August 1895, 3.
(36) “Tuttle Murder Trial: Report of Evidence as Given by the State,” Western Sentinel, 15 August 1895, 1.
(37) “Tuttle Murder Trial.”
(38) “Tuttle Murder Trial.”
(39) “Tuttle Murder Trial.” I have been unable to find any other information on Hine.
(40) Thomas William Farish (14 January 1843 - 27 August 1929; KHSM-4Z7) was listed in the 1895 city directory as an employee of R. L. Chandler & Co., a tobacco manufacturer. He was a Democrat who for years, in the late 19th-century and early 20th-century, served as a registrar and judge in Winston elections (“Registrars and Judges for City Election,” Union Republican, 12 March 1896, 3; “An Ordinance,” Winston-Salem Journal, 28 July 1907, 6; “Ordinance Adopted at a Meeting of the Board of Aldermen,” Twin-City Daily Sentinel, 19 February 1913, 7). One can reasonably assume that, after 1900, he was actively involved in the effort to limit the franchise of poor whites and disenfranchise most African Americans.
(41) “Tuttle Murder Trial,” Western Sentinel, 15 August 1895, 1.
(42) “Tuttle Murder Trial.”
(43) “Tuttle Murder Trial.”
(44) “Argument Concluded: Judge Brown Charging Jury in Tuttle Case,” Western Sentinel, 15 August 1895 3.
(45) In 1910, Ida conducted, largely by letter, an intense romance with William H. Maybin, a staunch supporter of James K. Vardaman, the populist, white supremacist governor and US senator from Mississippi; the story is told in her second book, The Mississippi Lawyer or, Was It All a Dream? (1911).
After the turn of the century, Ida performed readings at Confederate reunions and wrote Confederate battle poems (“Wearing 18 Garments, She Calls on Governor: Mrs. Ida Beard, of Winston-Salem, Drops in on South Carolina Executive,” News and Observer (Raleigh, NC), 3 May 1931, 31, reprinted from Columbia State; “Wears 17 Garments in Name of Modesty: Then, When Winter Comes, Mrs. Ida M. Beard Adds 10 More Garments – Has Own Opinion of ‘Young Things’ Who Doll Themselves Up in ‘Garment and a Half,’” Statesville (NC) Record and Landmark, 26 Jun 1930, 3, reprinted from Lenoir (NC) News-Topic.
(46) The times for sunrise and sunset in August 1895 in Winston-Salem were calculated using Planetcalc on 1 March 2021.
(47) “Tuttle Gets 25 Years for the Murder of Policeman Vickers,” Western Sentinel, 22 August 1895, 1.
(48) That Tuttle struck Vickers in the mouth was reported in May in “Horrible Affair! How Policeman Vickers Lost His Life,” Western Sentinel, 23 May 1895, 1.
(49) “Local News,” Union Republican, 11 August 1898, 8. It is possible that Tuttle was released as early as 1903, just eight years into his sentence; see below.
(50) “Superior Court. Two Murder Cases the Center of Interest,” Union Republican, 15 August 1895, 3.

Posted 23 November 2024. Send comments and questions to [email protected]