Buying a loaf of bread.

CURRENTLY: James (“Jimmy”) Walker Park
COMMEMORATED?: No
NOTE: Jones was lynched in front of what was then St. John’s Old Burying Ground. In 1897, the cemetery was covered over, headstones and all. Today, it is the site of James J. Walker Park, named for a former mayor of New York.

WILLIAM JONES – A crowd of rioters in pursuit of a negro, who in self defence had fired on some rowdies who had attacked him, met an innocent colored man returning from a bakery with a loaf of bread under his arm. They instantly set upon and beat him and after nearly killing him, hanged him to a lamppost. His body was left suspended for several hours and was much mutilated.

A sad illustration of the painful uncertainty which hung over the minds of the wives and children of the colored men was found in the fact that two wives and their families, were both mourning the loss of their husbands in the case of this man, for upwards of two weeks after its occurrence. And so great was the fear inspired by the mob that no white person had dared to manifest sufficient interest in the mutilated body of the murdered man while it remained in the neighborhood to be able to testify as to who it was. At the end of two weeks the husband of one of the mourners to her great joy returned, like one recovered from the grave. # # #