There was a time when you needed little excuse to kill a Black person. Virginia's 1669 Casual Killing Act made it legal to “accidentally” kill an enslaved person while correcting them. Slaveowners, sheriffs, slave patrols, and overseers were seldom punished for murdering a Black person, but now it was legitimized.
Once slavery ended in 1865, it was replaced immediately by Black Codes then Jim Crow. It didn't become significantly harder to kill Black people with impunity. Here are 50 examples where Black people were murdered, and while the killers were known in most cases, there was no justice.
This list is not exhaustive. There are thousands of documented cases across U.S. history where white perpetrators were never charged, all-white juries acquitted them, prosecutors refused to indict, or the state simply ignored the killing. Missing names include Harry T. Moore and Harriette Moore, whose home was bombed on Christmas Day, 1926. Their deaths were linked to Sheriff Willis V. McCall, but he was never tried for their deaths.
Sandra Bland might have been included, as well as George Floyd, who did see a few of those involved in his death prosecuted, with one man taking most of the blame. Derek Chauvin was well on his way to not being prosecuted until the brutal video of his knee on Floyd’s neck was released.
On Chicago Ave. in Minneapolis, between 39th Street and 38th Street, where Floyd was killed, there’s a list of names drawn on the street of Black people killed by the police or white vigilantes across the country. The list is no doubt longer than it was when I last saw it, almost three years ago.
What that list and the one in this story make undeniable is that these were not isolated tragedies or unfortunate lapses in judgment by individual juries. Each name represents a person with a family, a future, and a story that should have mattered — and each case reveals how thoroughly the machinery of American justice has failed when the victim is Black.
The pattern stretches across centuries, geographies, and generations, repeating itself with such consistency that it becomes impossible to call it anything other than intentional. Laws changed, eras shifted, and the language of racism evolved, but the outcome remained the same: Black people killed, white perpetrators shielded, and a nation that looked away.
Reconstruction and Jim Crow Era
- Thomas Moss (1892) — Lynched in Memphis; no charges.
- Calvin McDowell— Lynched with Moss; no charges.
- Henry Stewart— Lynched with Moss; no charges.
- Sam Hose (1899) — Lynched in Georgia; no charges.
- Frazier B. Baker (1898) — Postmaster murdered in South Carolina; all-white jury acquitted defendants.
- Julia Baker (1898) — Infant daughter killed in the same attack; no convictions.
- Anthony Crawford (1916) — Lynched in South Carolina; no charges.
- Jesse Washington (1916) — Lynched in Texas; no charges.
9. Ell Persons (1917) Lynched in Memphis; no charges.
10. Mary Turner (1918) Lynched in Georgia; no charges.
11. Hayes Turner (1918) — Lynched with Mary Turner; no charges.
12. Will Brown (1919) — Lynched in Omaha; no charges.
13. Elias Clayton (1920) — Duluth lynching; no convictions.
14. Elmer Jackson (1920) — Duluth lynching; no convictions.
15. Isaac McGhie (1920) — Duluth lynching; no convictions.
16. John Hartfield (1919) — Lynched in Mississippi; no charges.
17. George Armwood (1933) — Lynched in Maryland; no charges.
18. Claude Neal (1934) — Lynched in Florida; no charges.
19. Reuben Stacy (1935) — Lynched in Florida; no charges.
20. Elbert Williams (1940) — NAACP organizer murdered in Tennessee; no charges.
Civil Rights Era
21. Emmett Till (1955) — Killers acquitted; later confessed.
22. Lamar Smith (1955) — Voting-rights activist murdered in Mississippi; no charges.
23. George W. Lee (1955) — Voting-rights activist murdered; no charges.
24. Mack Charles Parker (1959) — Lynched in Mississippi; no charges.
25. Herbert Lee (1961) — Civil rights worker murdered; killer never charged.
26. Medgar Evers (1963) — First two trials ended in hung juries; conviction came decades later.
27. James Chaney (1964) — Mississippi Burning case; the state never charged the killers with murder.
28. Samuel Younge Jr. (1966) — Killed in Alabama; the killer was acquitted.
29. Vernon Dahmer (1966) — Klan attack; state-level accountability is minimal.
30. Wharlest Jackson (1967) — NAACP leader murdered; no charges.
Post–Civil Rights Era (1970s–1990s)
31. Clifford Glover (1973) — 10-year-old shot by NYPD officer; officer acquitted.
32. Arthur McDuffie (1979) — Beaten to death by Miami police; officers acquitted.
33. Eula Love (1979) — Killed by LAPD; no charges.
34. Michael Donald (1981) — Lynched by the Klan; only some perpetrators convicted, others not charged.
35. Eleanor Bumpurs (1984) — Killed by NYPD; officer acquitted.
36. Yusef Hawkins (1989) — Murdered in Brooklyn; some assailants convicted, others not charged.
37. Malice Green (1992) — Detroit killing; mixed accountability, some officers acquitted.
38. Johnny Gammage (1995) — Killed by police in Pittsburgh; officers acquitted or charges dropped.
39. Amadou Diallo (1999) — Shot 41 times by NYPD; officers acquitted.
40. Patrick Dorismond (2000) — Killed by NYPD; no charges.
21st Century
41. Sean Bell (2006) — Killed in Queens; officers acquitted.
42. Oscar Grant (2009) — BART shooting; officer convicted only of involuntary manslaughter.
43. Trayvon Martin (2012) — George Zimmerman acquitted.
44. Rekia Boyd (2012) — Off-duty officer acquitted.
45. Jordan Davis (2012) — Killer convicted of murder only after mistrial; initial charges limited.
46. Renisha McBride (2013) — Killer convicted, but many accomplices and enablers not charged.
47. Eric Garner (2014) — NYPD officer not charged; federal case declined.
48. Tamir Rice (2014) — 12-year-old killed; no charges.
49. Freddie Gray (2015) — All officers acquitted or charges dropped.
50. Breonna Taylor (2020) — No officer charged for killing her; only property‑damage charges filed