An 18-year-old African American named William Turner was lynched on November 18, 1921, in Helena, Arkansas, for an alleged assault on a 15-year-old white girl.

[1] Two years earlier hundreds of African-Americans were killed during the Elaine Race Riot in Hoop Spur, a nearby community also in Phillips County, Arkansas.

Early November 18, 1921, a 15-year-old was walking to her work at the local telephone exchange when she was allegedly assaulted by William Turner.

However, a group of masked white men stopped the sheriff, dragged Turner out of the car and shot him dead.

[3] The Black paper the St. Louis Argus reported that "after the celebrants had had their fill," they called the victim’s father, August Turner, to come to the little city park to and remove his son's bullet-ridden, charred remains.