Lynching of Benjamin Thomas
Benjamin Thomas (1883/1884 – August 8, 1899) was a 16-year-old Black boy from Alexandria, Virginia. He was arrested on August 7, 1899, accused of assaulting the 8-year-old daughter of a white neighbor. Thomas said he was innocent.
On August 8, around 10 p.m., a mob of hundreds of white residents surrounded the jail where he was being held and demanded his release. Around midnight they broke into the jail, dragged him out, beat him, placed a noose around his neck, and dragged him about half a mile before hanging him at the corner of King and Fairfax streets.
He was the second reported lynching victim in Alexandria; the first was Joseph H. McCoy, about two years earlier.
Beginning in 2020, Alexandria has honored Benjamin Thomas on the anniversary of his death. In 2022, the city held a ceremony using soil from places connected to his life to send to the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 02:36 (CET).