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On Friday, December 7, 1900, between the hours of 11:00 pm and midnight, 24-year-old Bud Rufus, an African American, was lynched in Floyd County, GA. His assailants were an armed group of unidentified white men. With a noose around his neck, he was “shoved” off a trestle of “the Southern railway (Rome and Decatur branch).” The location was half a mile east of the now-extinct town of Early, itself half a mile east of the Alabama state line, twelve miles west of Rome. After being pushed, the rope broke and his body fell into the ravine below. According to accounts of the day, immediately after his body plunged into the water, his assailants riddled his body with more than a hundred bullets leaving his chest “almost in a pulp” (The Atlanta Constitution, December 9, 1900, p. 5).
Earlier, in the short day before his arrest and death, there were two attempts to take Rufus to trial in Rome for the assault of Mrs. Joe White, a white resident of Early. Rufus had been arrested and brought in front of the victim, who had been brutally beaten “almost beyond recognition” and who never regained full consciousness after her attack. Nevertheless, reports claim that when she was asked if the man before her was her attacker, she nodded and her identification of him was accepted. The local bailiff attempted to keep him in custody, but to no avail. The lynchers found him, and after his murder, the remains of his body were placed by the side of tracks as a “warning.”
Bud Rufus’s death is the first recorded extrajudicial lynching of a named individual in Floyd County. His death was the first in a series of three such killings in the county, all within a span of 15 months.
The Crime
The crime for which Rufus was accused and illegally executed occurred on December 6th. That day, a Thursday, Mr. Joe White allegedly left his wife alone at their home to get wood four miles away. Later that afternoon, Mrs. White walked into a field near their home to collect cotton. While there alone, her attacker came from behind and hit Mrs. White over the head with a large tree branch. White’s attacker then dragged her unconscious body from the field to a nearby riverbank. The assailant beat her again with a stick before discarding the bloody weapon there on the riverbank. It was later found there in a bush.
Mr. White returned that evening to an empty house. He began looking for his wife, but she had never returned from the field. He rallied together search parties who began looking for her. After a little over an hour, she was found 400 yards from her home in “canebrake” (tall grass/bamboo), lying in a pool of blood. The search party located Mrs. White from her low gurgling noises. Her brutal attack left her unrecognizable. A local doctor was summoned from nearby Farill, AL, but “she never gained full consciousness, but lay in a stupor.” Her jawbone was broken, her skull was crushed in, and her face and body had cuts all over. How she was able to be in such a state and yet able to recognize her assailant is not addressed in any contemporaneous report.
The Arrest and Attempts Get to a Trial
Friday afternoon, Rufus was found at his employer, Mr. Appleton's home when he was accused and arrested. The alleged crime was for the assault of Mrs. Joe White. Before this accusation, Rufus was known for his good reputation. They concluded their investigation saying Rufus’ shoes match the prints left at the crime scene and the mud on his shirt matched the mud of the canebrake Mrs. White had been left in. With his fate sealed, Rufus was quoted saying he had been to the fence of the crime scene.
Only a day after the crime was committed, the investigation came to a close and Rufus was in custody. First, he had a hearing at Squire Early and then swiftly escorted to jail awaiting the evening for a train to take him to Rome for a trial. When Rufus and the police arrived at the train station around 6:25 pm, the train was being blocked by an armed band of men. Promptly, the police and Rufus retreated. In their second attempt, Bailiff Poole took Rufus to an old and somewhat secluded house with hopes of conducting a trial. Efforts will prove once again futile when around 10 pm, the crowd returned and kidnapped Rufus.
Within the Night of the Lynching
After his kidnapping from Bailiff Poole, Rufus was brought to Mrs. White’s bedside. In her stupor, she identified Rufus as her assailant with a head nod of approval. Even with her very apparent mental condition, the mob accepted the simple nod and without any hesitation brought Rufus to a bridge between Rome and Decatur. Once they reached a trestle, they tied a rope end to a rail and wrapped a noose around Rufus’ neck. He gave his last words admitting no guilt or innocence, “Nothing, ’cept to tell you gentle-men goodby, and to ask that you tell my folks farewell.” (Jackson Economist, 13 Dec. 1900)
Rufus was then forced to leap from the bridge and the rope was unable to sustain his weight. The rope snapped and his body swung before falling into the body of water below.
In quick response, “The crowd then began firing upon the prostrate body.” (Jackson Economist, 13 Dec. 1900). Rufus was shot in the center of his forehead with the bullet leaving a hole within his brain. His chest was “almost in a pulp” and his hand hung by a tendon. There were more than 100 bullet holes in Rufus.
The men then collected Rufus’ corpse and brought it up to a nearby railway. The mob placed him on a track and left Rufus’ hands and feet tied together. As a final act of violence, the men placed a sign on Rufus’ bullet-ridden breast that read, “This is a warning to both black and white not to meddle or you will suffer the same fate. “We Are The People.” (Weekly Constitution, 10 Dec. 1900).
Aftermath of Bud Rufus’ Lynching
The following morning on Friday, crowds traveled to see Rufus’ corpse that had been left on the railroad. Hundreds of people gathered in wagons, horseback, and on foot to see the gruesome the armed men had left the night before. This was recorded as the first lynching to occur in Floyd county. It was described as “shocking” in the Weekly Constitution, Newspaper in Atlanta, Georgia, and the consensus described by the newspapers was that the lynching was speedy justice.
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