Columbia residents work to memorialize lynch victim

A mob lynched James T. Scott for being accused of rape before he could stand trial in 1923.

By Allison Prang

Published Nov. 9, 2010

A crowd full of people of all races, ages and ethnic descents came together as one at Columbia’s Second Missionary Baptist Church on Sunday to commemorate one ideal: justice.

Keynote speaker Patrick Huber, a history professor at the Missouri University of Science and Technology, told the audience James T. Scott’s story and why it was important Columbia recognized it Sunday.

Just more than 87 years ago, in April 1923, Scott, a 35-year-old Columbia resident, World War I veteran and MU janitor, was lynched by a mob of about 2,000 people. 200 were MU students, a fact that gathered nationwide media attention for the university.

Scott had been accused of raping 14-year-old Regina Almstedt, the daughter of MU German professor Herman Almstedt, and was being held in the Boone County jail at the time.

After Scott was taken to jail, The Columbia Daily Tribune wrote an editorial challenging the white men of Columbia to work their roles as “champions of womanhood” and to bring justice to Scott and two other African-American men in jail, who were accused of raping two African-American school girls.

Less than eight hours after the Tribune hit newsstands, Columbia residents went to the jail in search of Scott.

An angry mob got through police personnel at the jail and broke into Scott’s cell, put him in a noose and took him to the bridge near where the rape had allegedly occurred.

Scott was then tossed over the bridge. The noose caused his neck to snap, killing him.

Because the lynching happened before Scott's trial, it violated his right to due process of law, which is promised to U.S. citizens in the Constitution.

Scott was then buried with a headstone saying he had "committed rape.”

Community members gathered Sunday at the Second Missionary Baptist Church to support the James T. Scott Benefit Program, which is taking donations to buy Scott a new headstone.

During the service, audience members could give personal donations to go toward the new headstone. Among private organizations that donated money were the mid-Missouri chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

“(We) come together as one voice, one people, to speak on behalf of a man whose voice was silenced,” Second Missionary Baptist Rev. Clyde Ruffin said. “James T. Scott was a member of this church. His wife, his mother and his stepfather were all members. We are speaking on behalf of injustice.”

Columbia resident and filmmaker Scott Wilson and associate medical examiner Mike Panella gave a special presentation about their efforts to appropriately memorialize Scott.

Wilson and Panella worked with the Missouri Bureau of Vital Records to formally change Scott’s death certificate to not only omit “committed rape,” but to mark the manner of Scott’s death as a homicide. Previously, no manner of death had been identified.

“James T. Scott didn’t get to watch his daughters get married,” Columbia Mayor Bob McDavid said at the benefit. “He didn’t get to hold his grandchildren. He didn’t get to listen to his grandchildren sing in a choir. He didn’t get to take his grandchildren fishing.”

McDavid told audience members it is necessary for Columbia to get over the disbelief that comes with hearing about occurrences like this.

“We have to get over the incredulousness of this event, so our community will re-dedicate a headstone to James T. Scott," he said. "We can’t fight the injustice. We can’t change the past. But we can remember and we can resolve the world together as God’s children, as brothers and sisters, as we share this time here.”