OXFORD, Miss — A Mississippi official says he doesn't want to approve a memorial for lynching victims because one Black man who would be listed on it was accused in a killing.
Lafayette County supervisors delayed final approval Monday of the marker that's proposed for outside the courthouse on the Square in Oxford.
Supervisor David Rikard said he had concerns with it listing Lawson Patton, who was accused of killing a white woman in 1908. Rikard says Patton was "caught red handed" committing an "extremely violent" crime.
A white mob lynched Patton without Patton going to trial.
Seven people are known to have been lynched in Lafayette County between 1885 and 1935.