Today in New Jersey History:
March 5. 1886: Samuel Johnson, an African-American jockey living in Eatontown, was accused of assaulting and raping a white girl. Arrested, Johnson, also known as “Mingo Jack,” was beaten to death and hanged on the jail door by a mob that evening. Although Monmouth County issued arrest warrants for those thought to be responsible for Johnson’s death, the only post-Revolutionary War lynching in New Jersey history, a lack of cooperation on the part of local people resulted in no indictments. Two years later another man confessed to the crime on his deathbed.
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