Dec. 27, 1907Henryetta, Okla., by the Associated Press
A little more than a month after Oklahoma achieved statehood, James Garden became a wretched statistic: the first black to be lynched there.
On Dec. 24, Garden went to see liveryman Albert Bates about renting a rig. When Bates refused, Garden accused him of racism, went across the street to get a gun, returned and shot Bates to death.
By nightfall, a group of 100 men stormed the jail, fought off police officers and hanged Garden from a telegraph pole in the center of town, then used his body for target practice, riddling it with bullets.
