Death Of Black Man Found Hanging From A Tree Finally Ruled A Homicide 100 Years Later

Tompkins, 19 at the time, left for work at 7:30 a.m. and did not return home. His body was later found at 2 p.m. in Indianapolis, NBC News reports. 

“The coroner himself went to the crime scene that day. He observed that Tompkins’ hands had been tied behind his back,” Rebecca Shrum, associate professor of history at Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis, said, according to Local 12 WKRC-TV.

However, someone at the coroner’s office documented Tompkins’ death as a suicide, even though evidence suggested he was killed. 

“Whites in Indianapolis committed two violent atrocities against Tompkins, they took his life and then they erased the memory of the event and replaced it with a lie,” Shrum added. 

Activists with the Indiana Remembrance Coalition have been advocating for Tompkins’ death certificate to reflect the actual cause of his death.

“It got written off in two days as a suicide. His lynching was buried before his body was, if you can fathom that,” Phil Bremen, a retired Ball State University communications professor and a volunteer administrator with Indiana Remembrance Coalition, said, NBC News reports.

“He was lynched on March 16. He was buried on March 20. The story disappeared no later than March 19. It was gone from the front pages, gone from the papers in two days,” Bremen added.

Mayor Joe Hogsett said Tompkins “did not receive justice from his city — neither in life, nor in death.”

“Today, by remembering and preserving our full history, we commit ourselves to a more just and humane future for all residents of Indianapolis,” Hogsett said, WISHTV reports.  

After the conference, activists and supporters unveiled a headstone to place on Tompkins’ unmarked grave. 

“In contrast to many of the more than 4,000 lynchings after Reconstruction and before the civil rights era, George Tompkins had never been accused of a crime. The motive for his killing has never been determined,” the Indiana Remembrance Coalition said in a news release, according to WISHTV.