Lynching of Frazier B. Baker and Julia Baker
Frazier B. Baker was an African-American teacher who was appointed as postmaster of Lake City, South Carolina, in 1897 under the William McKinley administration.
Frazier Baker had been appointed postmaster of Lake City in 1897, but local whites objected and had undertaken a campaign to force his removal.
After the 1896 presidential election, the Republican William McKinley administration appointed hundreds of Black people to postmasterships across the Southern United States during his remaining tenure as part of patronage jobs to build local networks.
[1] Frazier B. Baker, a married 40-year-old schoolteacher and the father of six children, was appointed postmaster of Lake City, South Carolina, in 1897.
[2] One complaint was that Baker, a member of the Colored Farmers Alliance, had cut mail delivery from three times a day to one after threats against his life were made.
[3] The government obtained space on the outskirts of town, however, a lessening of racial tension led Baker to send for his family in February 1898.
As the fire grew, the heat intensified, and Baker turned to his wife, Lavinia, saying that they "might as well die running as standing still," and started for the door.
Wounded by the same bullet that had killed her daughter, Lavinia rallied her family to escape the burning house, and they ran across the road to hide under shrubbery in an adjacent field.
The lynching was defended by those who agreed with South Carolina senator Benjamin Tillman, who said the "proud people" of Lake City refused to receive "their mail from a nigger.
"[9] To present the resolutions passed at that meeting, she met with President McKinley, arguing that Baker's murder "was a federal matter, pure and simple.
[9] While the lynching of the Bakers had to compete with the sinking of the USS Maine and the escalating tensions between the United States and Spain for the attention of the press, coverage of it was widespread.
The McKinley administration conducted a robust investigation of the murder, initially offering a $1,500 ($54,936 today) reward for the arrest and conviction of members of the mob.
[3] On 2 May 1898, a mass meeting was held at the Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, which passed a resolution condemning the attack.
Lillian Clayton Jewett met with Dr. Alonzo C. McClennan, the Charleston physician chairing a committee charged with the Bakers' welfare, and arranged a meeting with Lavinia.
[25] Locals suspected arson by white supremacists angry at the activism of minister Joseph DeLaine during the civil rights movement on behalf of the NAACP.
"[27] In 2003, the state General Assembly passed a resolution in favor of installing a South Carolina historical marker about the lynching and house fire.
