By Dr. Thomas Cloer, Jr.

Special to The Courier

In an age of technology, one need only to look at images of lynching victims to start wondering about the stories behind the images.

Pickens native William B. “Will” Gravely — an erudite scholar, renowned historian, polished author and professor emeritus at the University of Denver — has written the most comprehensive book ever on the barbaric lynching of young Willie Earle, a black Pickens County native killed in South Carolina’s last lynching after being taken from the jail by more than two dozen white men in 1947.

Early in America, before the Civil War, lynching referred to hanging. The term “lynching” gained broader meaning when hanging was replaced by easier and other acts of violence and torture, such as burnings, shootings, knifings, etc., of someone suspected of a crime. Lynching no longer means hanging only.

The 24-year-old Earle, who suffered from epilepsy, was taken from the old Pickens County jail, now the Pickens County Museum of Art and History. He was taken by a mob of taxi drivers from Greenville County in February 1947. Earle was beaten, stabbed repeatedly and shot at very close range in the head with a 12-gauge shotgun; his was a horrific murder. Gravely’s book, “They Stole

Him out of Jail,” is very recently published by the University of South Carolina Press (uscpress.com). The book is not only about the lynching, but is also about our Southern history, and how this lynching reverberated throughout America.

There were 26 men who gave confessions. However, there were differences in their testimonies that were troubling. A same incident can be interpreted many ways. When there is no tangible evidence to verify or disqualify an interpretation, how can one know what is

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