Bristol Community
Remembrance Project
Coalition
Remembering the Extra-judicial Murder of Robert Clark
The Bristol Community Remembrance Project Coalition is part of a broader movement led by the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) to confront and remember the history of racial violence in the United States, specifically lynching. By collecting soil from lynching sites and erecting historical markers, the initiative seeks to honor the victims, acknowledge the trauma that continues to affect communities, and promote healing through education and truth-telling.
The coalition in Bristol, Tennessee/Virginia, has been working since January 2023 to raise awareness about racial terror lynchings, which have often been overlooked or forgotten in mainstream history. Their efforts are not just about remembering the past but also fostering dialogue and understanding, creating spaces where communities can confront this painful history and work toward a more just future. Along with community leaders, the coalition has gained crucial support from organizations such as Appalachian Promise Alliance and Black in Appalachia, both of which focus on uplifting marginalized voices in the Appalachian region. Through combined efforts, the coalition aims to memorialize the documented lynching of Mr. Robert Clark who was in lynched in Bristol, VA on June 13, 1891.
The Story
In the afternoon of June 13, 1891, a large white mob brutally lynched a 20-year-old Black man
named Robert Clark in Bristol, Virginia. The mob, which numbered as many as 3,000 people,
hanged Mr. Clark from a tree and mutilated his body after kidnapping him from the city jail. No
one was ever held accountable.
White residents of Bristol lynched Mr. Clark after accusing him of assaulting a white woman several days prior. Following the report of the assault, police officers and enraged white citizens organized a manhunt. Suspicion was quickly directed at Mr. Clark, who had been seen outside the night of the alleged assault. Police arrested him on June 9 at the home of his girlfriend, where he was sleeping.
On June 12, Mr. Clark was brought before a preliminary hearing presided over by the Bristol mayor. The hearing lasted until the following morning, and he was then imprisoned in the local jail. There was no direct evidence that Mr. Clark committed the alleged offense. Numerous citizens, including the husband of the white woman who reported being assaulted, expressed doubts that Mr. Clark was the perpetrator. However, in this era, accusations lodged against Black people were rarely subject to serious scrutiny, and Black people were burdened with a presumption of guilt that often led to hasty police action and rapid mob violence. Almost all victims of racial terror lynching, including Mr. Clark, were killed before a formal investigation was concluded.
A large white crowd attended the preliminary hearing on June 13 and spread the word throughout Bristol that they planned to lynch Mr. Clark that day. Within an hour, a mob surrounded the jail where Mr. Clark was being detained. One member of the mob used an ax to break down the door of the jail, and a “stream of angry men” soon entered the building and abducted Mr. Clark. A newspaper reported that “there was no resistance offered” from police officers, despite knowing the mob’s intentions to lynch him. The mob cheered as the “badly frightened” Mr. Clark was seized from the jail and prodded outside.
As the mob paraded Mr. Clark up Lee Street and west onto Mary Street, white men reportedly tossed hats in the air, and white women and children applauded and waved their handkerchiefs. The mob members made no attempt to hide their faces, and it was reported that “it seemed that all present were taking delight in making themselves as prominent as possible.” By 1 pm, the mob had brought Mr. Clark to a grove of trees a mile out of town. Mr. Clark was given a brief moment to speak, during which he maintained his innocence, prayed, and asked God to forgive the mob members for their crimes. He also asked mob members not to mutilate his body or riddle it with bullets, as mobs frequently did during racial terror lynchings in this era. The mob then took a chain from a nearby wagon, tied it around Mr. Clark’s neck, and hanged him to death from a chestnut tree. Disregarding Mr. Clark’s final request, the mob beat and mutilated his body as he was suspended. Mr. Clark’s corpse was left hanging for four hours. During this lynching, the Bristol mob also threatened to lynch another unnamed Black man who had suggested Black community members could attempt to defend Mr. Clark.
Five white men out of the mob of 3,000 that lynched Mr. Clark were indicted for their participation, but they were released on bond and never faced trial.
News of Mr. Clark’s lynching was reported in dozens of newspapers in Virginia and around the country, including in states outside the South such as Ohio, Utah, and California. Almost all white newspapers that carried the account of the lynching failed to denounce the deplorable acts of the white lynch mob. Instead, they justified illegal mob violence by perpetuating dehumanizing and deadly stereotypes about Black people. White newspapers referred to Mr. Clark as a “fiendish ravager,” a “colored fiend,” and a “desperado” and justified the lynching by claiming he had a “very bad character.” These accounts consistently failed to express any concern that white mob participants faced no legal consequences for the lynchings they committed.
Little was reported about Mr. Clark’s life, family, or work prior to his lynching. Robert Clark was born around 1871 and was a member of Bristol’s longstanding Black community, which in the 1890s centered around the section of downtown Bristol known as “Blackbottom.” Amidst Jim Crow laws limiting Black people’s social and economic opportunities, community members in Blackbottom established around a dozen Black-owned businesses, including a doctor’s office and a law practice. Mr. Clark was 20 years old when he was lynched and was survived by his girlfriend.
Robert Clark is one of at least 100 documented victims of racial terror lynching killed in Virginia between 1865 and 1950.
Coalition Members
Tina McDaniel, Chair ~ Preston Mitchell, Co-Chair
Dr. Daryl Carter, Dr. Martin Dotterweich, Melissa Mullins Ellis,
Margaret Feierabend, Breanne Hubbard, William Isom II
Rev. Eddie Mabry, Rev. Jacqueline Nophlin,
Sid Oakley, Neal Osborne, Rene Rodgers, Rev. Sam Weddington