Circumstance of Death

Deputy Collector William Henderson Foote, an African-American, was lynched by a mob on December 29, 1883, in Yazoo City, Mississippi. Four days earlier, Foote had intervened to save a fellow Yazooan from a lynching which resulted in three white men killed.  Foote and 10 other African-American men were jailed and subsequently charged in their deaths. The mob broke into the jail to get at Foote and others to lynch them.  The Yazooan whom Foote tried to prevent from being lynched was pursued by a posse and gunned down.

Background Information

While most were killed by well-armed moonshiners, one was not. Deputy Collector William Henderson Foote, an African-American, was lynched by a mob on December 29, 1883, in Yazoo City, Mississippi. Four days earlier, Foote had intervened to save a fellow Yazooan from a lynching which resulted in three White men killed, and Foote and 10 other African-American men jailed and subsequently charged in their deaths. The Yazooan whom Foote tried to prevent from being lynched was pursued by a posse and gunned down.

Personal

Deputy Collector Foote's body was recovered, and the funeral service was held at the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) in Vicksburg. His final resting place is Cedar Hill Cemetery, also in Vicksburg. Deputy Collector Foote was survived by his wife, Mattie J. Foote, and their children, sons Willie and Joseph and daughter Mattie.