Today -100: August 21, 1911: Of sprinklers and mobs

Post-Triangle Fire, the NYC fire commissioner says he will order fire sprinklers installed in 200 or so buildings.

A black preacher in Donaldsonville, Georgia killed a marshal. This is naturally followed by three days (so far) of rampaging by bands of whites throughout three counties, whipping and murdering any black person they can find, burning their churches and schools. The whites think the blacks were all involved in a conspiracy to murder the marshal because he’d been raiding their lodge meetings; the actual killer was chosen by lot or something, according to this rumor. The sheriffs of the affected counties couldn’t – or wouldn’t – stop the mobs, and refused to ask the governor to send troops. Most negroes have fled the area.