On April 14, 1906, the people of Springfield Missouri took the future of the city into their own hands. In the latest outrage of a long string of black-on-white murders and rapes in the city, a young woman had been attacked and sexually assaulted by two black men. Horace Duncan and Fred Coker had been arrested for the crime and were awaiting trial, but the people of Springfield, having reached the end of their tolerance, raided the jail and hanged Horace and Fred in the public square before a crowd of thousands. They also hanged William Allen, who had helped to murder an elderly white man. Thanks to the actions of Springfield's citizens that night, much of the black population fled to more forgiving destinations. The black percentage of the city declined rapidly and dramatically, remaining even today only about half of what it once was. For some time now, I have thought about and studied the repercussions of that wild night in 1906 — and in particular, how many needless deaths in Springfield were prevented over the 117 years since then. Despite being only about 5% of the population, blacks are typically involved in somewhere between a quarter and a half of the murders in the city, not to mention all the other various ways they make life uglier. There is a bare minimum of at least one black-on-white killing in Springfield each and every year. For some recent examples, see Lindsay Arnold (2016), https://poal.co/s/EveryDay/614529 Adam Hilburn (2017), https://www.news-leader.com/story/news/crime/2017/07/16/main-witness-springfield-murder-lying-says-ex-wife-slain-man/468890001/ Riddick Tudor (2017), https://poal.co/s/EveryDay/577594 Zachary Zumwalt (2017), https://poal.co/s/EveryDay/593364 Lance Loveless (2018), https://www.ozarksfirst.com/news/springfield-man-sentenced-to-two-life-sentences-for-two-murders-in-2018/ https://archive.ph/J0JOs Ryan Boulanger (2018), https://www.news-leader.com/story/news/crime/2018/09/19/crime-spree-springfield-included-forcible-sodomy-docs-say/1355436002/ Mackenna Milhon (2019), https://fox4kc.com/news/springfield-man-charged-in-death-of-19-year-old-woman-found-a-week-after-she-went-missing/ https://archive.ph/sfI9z Krista McKinnon (2020), https://poal.co/s/EveryDay/546866 Darrell Gott Jr. (2020), https://www.ozarksfirst.com/news/local-news/springfield-man-charged-in-shooting-death-of-teenager-in-2020/ https://archive.ph/JOI4D Billy Glass III (2020), https://www.ky3.com/2020/11/24/friend-of-victim-in-deadly-springfield-motel-shooting-says-addiction-is-real/ Christopher Kuder (2021), https://www.ozarksfirst.com/news/local-news/accused-atlantic-st-shooter-gets-trial-date-in-murder-case/ https://archive.ph/FtPK8 Jeffrey Brent (2022)... https://t.me/everyday1350/1882 https://poal.co/s/EveryDay/612275 How many more would there have been, if not for the collective actions of the exasperated citizens of Springfield on that April 14? The resulting change in the city's racial makeup has undoubtedly saved upwards of 100 white lives to date, as a very conservative estimate. Now, based on every account I've read, although William Allen was certainly a murderer or accomplice, the other two blacks that were strung up that night were innocent of the charges against them. Was this justice? No, not really. But all things considered, I'm not sorry that it happened.