The Beaumont Incident

Howdy folks and greetings from the Great Plains of North Texas!

We're in a series about one of the top Texas Ranger lawmen to ever wear the badge, the great Frank Hamer, who was brought out of retirement to take down Bonnie and Clyde.

In the last post in this series Frank's Ranger unit or company, was ordered to Austin, TX where they were thrust into the volatile environment of racial tension between Blacks and Whites.

I believe the Rangers were sent in because they worked strictly by the law and didn't care what color anyone was. But whenever there was a crime committed by a Black person in Southeast Texas all hell broke loose and lynch mobs were out in force.

Today's story

Much of the work Frank and his companions performed was secreting suspects from jail or prison to the various court houses. Many times the lynch mobs were so large, we're talking thousands of people, the Rangers called on the state militia.

The militia would furnish teams of between 25 to 50 men to accompany them and help guard the prisoners. Frank had never seen anything like it!

Public executions by hanging were still being carried out and when it was a Black man who'd committed a crime against a white person the typical crowds numbered about 5 thousand!

At times, especially in small towns, lynch mobs would show up in the middle of the night, take over the jail, drag out any Blacks that were there and hang them all. That was the kind of atmosphere the Rangers found themselves in.

The incident in Beaumont

Beaumont, Texas was a growing city in Southeast Texas located just 20 miles from Louisiana. It sure wasn't a West Texas town, it was Deep South for all intents and attitudes. Pre-Civil War feelings prevailed about Blacks.

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One day a Black youth heard screams and went to see where they were coming from. By the time he got there he found a 13 yr old white girl name Ada Bell Hopkins. She'd been brutally raped and beaten unconscious.

The kid saw a Black man running away and two other black men chased him into the woods but lost him. The police were called, the whole city went berserk with rage, the woods were searched by a massive crowd of angry white men.

An innocent Black man was out hunting for squirrels with a shotgun and he was killed "by accident." But the suspect wasn't caught.

Even though the Blacks had reported the crime, had given descriptions and helped in the hunt, two Black owned businesses were burnt to the ground that night as well as several Black owned houses.

A main suspect is found

The county Sheriff did a good job of rounding up "suspects" but they were really just temporary scapegoats, not real suspects. He knew he had to show some results fast or else there would be even more bloodshed.

From interviewing witnesses the Sheriff found out that some had seen a 30 yr old black man talking to the young white girl earlier that day.

They would remember such a thing because a Black man in that time just didn't strike up conversations with white females, especially 13 yr olds.

He's toast

The cat's name was Claude Golden and he got a visit from the Sheriff the next day and they searched his place. Golden had burned his shirt but deputies found a blood-stained cuff which hadn't burned up.

Pitiful job of destroying evidence, had to of been drunk.

So he and a Black kid were arrested. Well, word spread like wildfire and a huge, angry, well-armed mob was forming.

Amazingly Frank showed up in Beaumont that day, by himself, and volunteered to guard and keep the two Black prisoners safe! The only person in the world who could pull off what happens next is Frank Hamer.

Thanks for reading folks, God bless you all!
-jonboy
Texas

PS- If you've been reading my posts you know I keep finding great wire sculptures. Here are a few created by the same lady who made the giraffe, Kendra Haste.

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