During the Summer of 1921, James Harvey and Joe Jordan, after hiking throughout the Deep South, had stopped in Wayne County in southeast Georgia, performing several months of agricultural work.

[1] Three days after the alleged incident, the men were moved to a jail in Savannah[1] and, while incarcerated, were tried in absentia in Wayne County, where they were convicted and sentenced to death.

[3] The NAACP hired James A. Harolds, a white lawyer from Jesup (in Wayne County), to defend Harvey and Jordan and pushed for a retrial,[4] arguing that the men's constitutional rights had been violated and that they had been unable to call witnesses or have any say in the jury selection.

[3] The NAACP's Savannah branch also launched an investigation into the lynching, traveling to the scene of the crime, gathering testimonies from witnesses, and collecting evidence.

[2] According to multiple witnesses interviewed by the NAACP, the two police officers transporting Harvey and Jordan had waited at the scene of the lynching for several hours before the mob arrived, leaving little doubt of their involvement.

[4] The event caused outrage among both the black population and prominent local white citizens, as this was the first lynching in coastal Georgia in over twenty years.