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Murder of Thomas Coleman

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Thomas Coleman
BornCirca 1832 (1832)[1]
Mississippi[1]
DiedDecember 10, 1866(1866-12-10) (aged 33–34)[1]
Salt Lake City, Utah[1]
Cause of deathLynching, head bludgeoned with a large rock, throat cut with a knife[2][1]
Body discovered11 Dec 1866,[1] 40°46′33″N 111°53′28″W / 40.7759°N 111.8911°W / 40.7759; -111.8911
Burial placeSalt Lake City Cemetery[1]
200 "N" Street: 40°46′37″N 111°51′35″W / 40.776918°N 111.859853°W / 40.776918; -111.859853
Other names"Nigger Tom",[2][3][4] Thomas Colburn,[2] Thomas Bankhead[2]
OccupationHotel attendant[1]
EmployerBrigham Young[1]
OrganizationThe Salt Lake House[1]

Thomas Coleman (c. 1832 – December 10, 1866), a Black man formerly enslaved by Mormons, was murdered in 1866 in Salt Lake City, Utah.[2][1] Sources report the lynching was a hate crime and was committed by a friend or family member (or multiple people) of a White woman Coleman allegedly had been seen walking with before.[5] The killer(s) slit his throat deeply and castrated his body. They then dumped his body near where the Utah State Capitol is now located,[6][2] and pinned a note to his chest which said in large letters, "Notice to all niggers! Take warning!! Leave white women alone!!!"[7]: 181 

Background

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See also: Interracial marriage and the LDS Church, Black segregation and the LDS Church, and Mormonism and violence

At the time, Salt Lake City's population was overwhelmingly White and 90% Mormon,[8] and church members were strongly influenced by church leaders' anti-interracial-marriage teachings in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church).[9] For example, church president and former governor of the Utah territory, Brigham Young taught on at least three occasions (1847,[10] 1852,[11] and 1865[12]) that the punishment for Black–White interracial marriages was death. He gave the example of beheading as a fitting method in one instance.[11] Young further stated the killing of a Black–White interracial couple and their children as part of a blood atonement would be a blessing to them.[13]: 37, 39 [14] Additionally, Utah's predominantly LDS government had outlawed Black-White marriages in 1852.[9] Nationwide, the ethnic stereotype caricaturing Black men as brutes who often raped White women was used as a justification for lynching.[15]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "The Life and Murder of Thomas Coleman". Salt Lake City: University of Utah. Retrieved May 7, 2023.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Tanner, Courtney (June 12, 2022). "Two Black men were once lynched in SLC. Here's what we know about their stories". Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved May 7, 2023.
  3. ^ "Found Dead". Salt Lake Daily Telegraph. Salt Lake City. December 12, 1866. p. 3. Retrieved May 7, 2023 – via University of Utah.
  4. ^ "Record of the dead, books A-C 1848-1888" (1889) [Textual record]. Utah, Salt Lake City Cemetery Records, 1847-1976, ID: Image 130 of 556. Salt Lake City: FamilySearch, Utah State Archives. May 19, 2020.
  5. ^ "The Killing of Thos. Coleman Monday Night". The Daily Union Vedette. Fort Douglas. December 15, 1866. p. 2. Retrieved May 7, 2023 – via University of Utah.
  6. ^ Maxwell, John Gary (2013). "A Climate of Violence". Robert Newton Baskin and the Making of Modern Utah. University of Oklahoma Press. p. 95. ISBN 978-0-8061-8928-4.
  7. ^ Reeve, W. Paul (2015). Religion of a Different Color: Race and the Mormon Struggle for Whiteness. New York City: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199754076.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-975407-6 – via Google Books.
  8. ^ McCormick, John S. (May 18, 2016). "Utah History Encyclopedia: Salt Lake City". History to Go. Utah State Department of Cultural & Community Engagement. Retrieved May 7, 2023. In 1870 more than 90 percent of Salt Lake's 12,000 residents were Mormons.
  9. ^ a b Porter, Christie (March 17, 2023). "Five Cases of Utah Crime That Shocked The Beehive State". Salt Lake Magazine.
  10. ^ Turner, John G. (September 20, 2012). Brigham Young: Pioneer Prophet (1st ed.). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press. p. 222. ISBN 978-0674049673. Retrieved April 17, 2023 – via Internet Archive. If they [the couple and child] were far away from the Gentiles [non-Mormons] they wo[ul]d all have to be killed[.] [W]hen they mingle seed it is death to all. If a black man & white woman come to you & demand baptism can you deny them? [T]he law is their seed shall not be amalg[a]mated. Mulattoes are like mules[,] they can't have the children, but if they will be Eunuchs for the Kingdom of God's Heaven's sake they may have a place in the Temple.
  11. ^ a b Collier, Fred C. (1987). The Teachings of President Brigham Young Vol. 3 1852–1854. Colliers Publishing Co. p. 44. ISBN 0934964017 – via Google Books. Were the children of God to mingle their seed with the seed of Cain [i.e. Black people] it would not only bring the curse of being deprived of the power of the Priesthood upon them[selves] but they entail it upon their children after them, and they cannot get rid of it. If a man in an unguarded moment should commit such a transgression, if he would walk up and say [']cut off my head,['] and [one then] kill[ed the] man, woman and child, it would do a great deal towards atoning for the sin. Would this be to curse them? No, it would be a blessing to them—it would do them good, that they might be saved with their brethren. A many would shudder should they hear us talk about killing folk, but it is one of the greatest blessings to some to kill them, although the true principles of it are not understood.
  12. ^ Young, Brigham (1865). "The Persecutions of the Saints—Their Loyalty to the Constitution—The Mormon Battalion—The Laws of God Relative to the African Race" (PDF). Journal of Discourses. Vol. 10. p. 110 – via Brigham Young University. Shall I tell you the law of God in regard to the African race? If the white man who belongs to the chosen seed mixes his blood with the seed of Cain, the penalty, under the law of God, is death on the spot. This will always be so.
  13. ^ Harris, Matthew L.; Bringhurst, Newell G. (2015). The Mormon Church and Blacks: A Documentary History. Chicago: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-252-08121-7. ProQuest 2131052022 – via Google Books.
  14. ^ Schaeffer, Frank (January 12, 2009). "Perspectives on Marriage: Score 1 For Gay America — 0 To The Mormons". HuffPost.
  15. ^ "The Brute Caricature". Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia. Big Rapids, Michigan: Ferris State University. Retrieved May 7, 2023.
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