In Remembrance: Lynching in America
The Soil Collection Project
Equal Justice Initiative
William Donnegan and Scott Burton
Springfield, Sangamon County, Illinois, August 15, 1908
On August 15, 1908, a large mob of white people brutally lynched two Black men, William Donnegan and Scott Burton, during a wave of violence targeting the African American community of Springfield, Illinois. Though over 100 mob members were identified and indicted for their participation in the violence, none were ever held accountable for lynching Mr. Donnegan or Mr. Burton.
These lynchings took place during what became known as the Springfield Riot. The prior day, on August 14, a mob of 5,000 to 10,000 white citizens gathered at the Sangamon County Jail intent on lynching two Black men named George Richardson and Joe James, who had been accused of attacking white people. When the would-be lynch mob learned that the men had been taken from the jail to another city, a violent riot broke out.
Some members of the mob destroyed the business of Harry Loper, a white man rumored to have helped transport Mr. Richardson and Mr. James from the jail. Others attacked police and militia stationed at the jail. The mob then descended on homes and businesses in Springfield’s Black neighborhoods, destroying around $150,000 worth of property and setting whole city blocks on fire.
The violence climaxed the next day, August 15, with the lynching of two Black men. First, at around 2:30 am, the mob set fire to a barbershop owned by a 59-year-old Black man named Scott Burton. The mob then seized Mr. Burton, beat him unconscious, dragged him through the streets, then hanged him and mutilated his body. The lynching of Mr. Burton took place at the corner of 12th and Madison streets, now located approximately at the intersection of East Madison Street and East Clear Lake Avenue.
Throughout the mob’s rampage, local police and militia members were unable to stop the spread of violence. In fact, witnesses affirmed that some members of law enforcement sympathized with or even joined the mob. After the lynching of Mr. Burton, the Illinois governor and Springfield sheriff debated declaring martial law but decided against it, incorrectly believing that the violence would soon subside.
Just a few hours later, around 9 pm, the mob broke into the home of William Donnegan, an elderly Black shoemaker. The mob abducted him, beat him, slashed his throat, and hanged him from a tree in a schoolyard across the street. Mr. Donnegan was still alive when the militia arrived at the scene, but he died the next morning.
Reports say that he was targeted because he was married to a white woman. Even though interracial marriage was legally permitted in Illinois, during this era white people’s fears of interracial relationships often provoked extreme violence. The lynching of William Donnegan took place around West Edwards and South Spring streets, a few blocks from the Illinois State Capitol Building.
Amidst the terror of the riot, hundreds of Black citizens fled their homes, including some who sought National Guard protection at nearby Camp Lincoln.
Racial terror was wielded to maintain racial hierarchy and dominance by instilling fear in the entire Black community through brutal violence that was often unpredictable and arbitrary. It was common during this era for a mob’s focus to expand beyond a specific person accused of an offense and target members of the suspect’s family, neighbors, or any and all Black people unfortunate enough to be in the mob’s path. Neither Mr. Donnegan nor Mr. Burton had been accused of any crime, but they nevertheless became the target of the mob’s rage.
Countless people witnessed the Springfield mob’s wave of violence, and after it was finally quelled, a grand jury issued indictments for 117 mob members in connection with the riot. However, at trial, many white community members refused to testify, and all-white jury members refused to convict all but two people: a 15-year-old who was sent to a state reformatory and a Jewish immigrant from Russia who was fined and received a 30-day jail sentence for stealing a military sword during the riot. For the lynchings of Mr. Burton and Mr. Donnegan, no one was held accountable.
Though most prevalent in the states that fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War, hundreds of racial terror lynchings were perpetrated outside the South in states including Illinois and featured many of the same characteristics of Southern lynchings, especially after accusations against Black people of offenses against white people. In the aftermath of the Springfield Riot, and in recognition that racial terror lynching was a national problem, not just a Southern one, a group of civil rights activists met in 1909 to form the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The NAACP soon embarked upon a decades-long anti-lynching campaign led by courageous leaders including Ida B. Wells, W.E.B. Dubois, and Mary Church Terrell.
Although many victims were never documented and remain unknown, William Donnegan and Scott Burton are among more than 55 Black people lynched in Illinois between 1865 and 1950 and among more than 6,500 Black people lynched across the United States.
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