Lynching of Willie Earle

The lynching of Willie Earle took place in Greenville, South Carolina on February 16, 1947, when Earle, a 24-year-old black man, was arrested, taken from his jail cell and murdered. It is considered the last lynching to occur in South Carolina, albeit the murder of Betty Gardner by four white people in 1978 has also been described as a lynching. The subsequent trial gained much media attention, and was covered by Rebecca West for The New Yorker. The trial resulted in the acquittal of 31 white men who had been charged with Earle's murder.

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