John Tucker (born around 1800) was the victim of a racial terror lynching that took place on July 4, 1845, in downtown Indianapolis, Indiana.

Finding himself being accosted by a drunken white man, Nicholas Wood, Tucker began to walk toward the Indianapolis Magistrate's office to seek help.

[3] Two of the three men who committed this crime, Nicholas Wood and Edward Davis, were arrested and tried for John Tucker's murder.

Their request was denied, however, and Indiana governor James Whitcomb refused to involve himself in the case to pardon Wood.

[4] The lynching had lasting effects even decades later, as Black men who could vote remembered the legal system's weak response to the Tucker case.

"Uncovering and documenting uncomfortable history is an obligation that we all must share," said Eunice Trotter, director of Indiana Landmarks' Black Heritage Preservation Program and a member of the IRC.