Robert Charles

For other people named Robert Charles, see Robert Charles (disambiguation).
Robert Charles

Robert Charles (1865–1900) was an African American living in New Orleans whose armed resistance to arrest and shooting of police officers sparked a major race riot in 1900; see the Robert Charles Riots.

Charles was involved in the Liberian emigration movement.

In his thirties in 1900, Charles was a quiet, intense man who worked at odd jobs. He supported black emigration to Africa as a response to white terrorism in the South. He read a lot and collected weapons, but broke no laws.

One night in July he sat on a front porch in New Orleans talking quietly with a friend. Close to midnight, three police officers arrived with drawn pistols and billy clubs to announce his arrest. In the ensuing altercation, Charles drew his gun and fatally shot one of the officers. Wounded himself, he fled to his own place.

Grabbing a rifle, Charles moved from one hiding place to another. Along his trail he left five dead police officers and a dozen wounded ones. A mob of over one thousand joined the police in the manhunt, frequently firing indiscriminately into the black community. Finally surrounded, Charles was burned out of his hiding place and immediately riddled with bullets. As was customary, the mob mutilated the body. [1]

Journalist Ida Wells-Barnett investigated the incident as part of her study of lynchings; she wrote: "The white people of this country may charge that he was a desperado, but to the people of his own race Robert Charles will always be regarded as the 'Hero of New Orleans.'"[2]

References

  1. ↑ John Newsinger (February 2015). "The hero of New Orleans". Socialist Review (399). Retrieved 2016-11-11.
  2. ↑ Wells, Ida B. (1 February 2014). Mob Rule in New Orleans: Robert Charles and His Fight to Death. Floating Press. pp. 62–69. ISBN 978-1-77652-913-1.

Further reading


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