Black man’s death in Indiana ruled a lynching nearly 100 years later

The death of a young Black man who was found hanging from a tree in Indiana nearly 100 years ago has finally been ruled a lynching, officials said.

Even though 19-year-old George Tompkins’ hands had been bound behind his back, the Indianapolis slaying was ruled a suicide in 1922 and no one was ever arrested.

The record was corrected on Saturday as Marion County Deputy Chief Coroner Alfie McGinty displayed a new death certificate that listed Tompkins’ passing as the result of homicide.

“We will bring justice to something that was unconscionable to me,” McGinty said. “We are proud to be a part of this history, some 100 years later, and we will remember George Tompkins.”

Activists with the Indiana Remembrance Coalition had been pushing for Tompkins’ death certificate to be changed.

Phil Breman, a volunteer administrator with the group, said Tompkins’ case stood out to them because it was so casually brushed aside with no follow-up by local authorities.

“It got written off in two days as a suicide. His lynching was buried before his was body was, if you can fathom that,” Breman, a retired Ball State Univeristy communications professor, told NBC News on Monday.

“He was lynched on March 16, he was buried on March 20, the story disappeared no later than March 19. It was gone form the front pages, gone form the papers in two days.”

Tompkins walked out of his home 7:30 a.m. the day of his death, family at the time said, and he was found hanging from a tree at about 2 p.m. near the corner or Lafayette and Cold Spring Roads. 

“This recognition comes 100 years too late,” Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett said. “It is up to public officials like myself and others to preserve and promote equal justice for all residents of our city.”

Karrah Herring, Gov. Eric Holcomb’s chief equity, inclusion and opportunity officer, said the acknowledgment of Tompkins’ brutal death almost a century later is still valuable.

The U.S. Senate, only last week, passed a bill making lynching a federal crime.

“We have to be comfortable with uncomfortable conversations even today,” Herring said.