"Slocum Massacre"

The killers lived in the same rural neighborhood as their victims, eight unarmed Black men aged eighteen to seventy, the Handbook of Texas says; two more men were wounded and survived. Sheriff William H. Black told reporters that a "hot-headed gang" was hunting Black residents down. Sixteen-year-old Lusk Holley saw his brother Alex killed and escaped only by playing dead after being shot; he moved to Fort Worth, while his brothers Reagan and Marshall stayed in Anderson County. Five indicted men sat in jail until May 1911, when an appeals court ordered the judge to rule on bail.

What the plaque says

"Slocum Massacre" Racial tensions in America in the early 20th century were sometimes punctuated by violent outbursts. One such occasion began near Slocum and Denson Springs and spread across a wide area near the Anderson-Houston county line. Beginning on the morning of July 29, 1910, groups of armed white men shot and killed African Americans, first firing on a group near Sadler's Creek. Murders in the black community continued during the remainder of that day and night. Accounts in state and national newspapers brought widespread attention to the situation. Judges ordered saloons and gun and ammunition stores to close, and state militia and Texas Rangers were dispatched to the area. The murders of eight men were officially recorded. The victims were Cleveland Larkin, Alex Holley (Hollie), Sam Baker, Dick Wilson, Jeff Wilson, Ben Dancer, John Hays and Will Burly. Many African American families fled the area and did not return. Eleven white men were soon arrested, and district judge Benjamin H. Gardner empaneled a grand jury within a week. When its findings were reported on August 17, seven men were indicted. The cases were moved to Harris County but were never prosecuted. The events which came to be known as the "Slocum Massacre" largely disappeared from public view in subsequent generations. In 2011, the 82nd Texas Legislature adopted a resolution acknowledging the incident. (2015)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Texas State Railroad Excursion Train — 10 mi
  A round trip of about 25 miles of track between the Palestine and Rusk depots through the Piney Woods, on a line built by prison labor and reopened as a tourist railroad in 1976.
• Caddo Mounds State Historic Site — 18 mi
  Three earthen mounds of an ancestral Caddo village and ceremonial center on the old El Camino Real, settled about A.D. 800 and still sacred to Caddo people, with a grass house and visitor center.

More markers nearby

• Site of the McClean Massacre — 3.1 mi
• Joseph T. Bowman — 4.3 mi
• Guiceland Cemetery — 4.3 mi
• Denson Springs Cemetery — 5.1 mi