Chinese Man Reported Lynched in Confused Borderland Reports

Narrative

In July 1911, Honolulu newspapers reported that a Chinese man had been lynched in El Paso and that forty Chinese men were jailed on suspicion. But The Montgomery Advertiser placed the killing across the border in Juárez, where a Chinese man was found hanging from a tree, and twenty Chinese men were arrested. The surviving reports are sparse and contradictory, but they point to a rare late lynching report from the El Paso–Juárez borderlands.

Related Newspaper Article(s)

Chinese Jailed for Alleged Lynching

Honolulu Star-Bulletin (Honolulu, Hawaii)

July 26, 1911 (Page 1)

A brief El Paso wire notes one Chinese man lynched and forty compatriots jailed on suspicion, pending investigation.

Chinese Jailed for Alleged Lynching

Honolulu Star-Advertiser (Honolulu, Hawaii)

July 27, 1911 (Page 1)

A follow-up dispatch reiterates that one Chinese man was lynched in El Paso and forty others detained; authorities continue inquiries amid community tension.

Chinamen Lynch Chinaman

The Montgomery Advertiser (Montgomery, Alabama)

July 27, 1911 (Page 3)

Datelined El Paso (July 26): twenty Chinese men were arrested in Juarez for the lynching of a Chinese man found hanging from a tree; reported as the first lynching on record in Juarez.