The burning of Will Brown’s body, Omaha, Nebraska, Sept. 28, 1919.

On September 28, 1919, Omaha’s racial tensions reached a violent climax during a riot that resulted in the brutal lynching of a 41-year-old African American man, Will Brown, and the heavy beating of Omaha’s  Mayor, Edward P. Smith.

Riots had broken out across the country during the summer of 1919, leaving American cities tense—and Omaha, in the midst of dramatic political changes, was no different. Brown, accused of raping a young white woman on September 25, was brought to the Douglass County Courthouse to await trial—but he would never have the opportunity to prove his innocence. On the night of September 28, a mob numbering in the thousands converged on the courthouse, firing guns and later setting the building on fire. When the mayor tried to intervene, he became the target of the mob’s anger. Beaten unconscious, Mayor Smith would later awake in the hospital, bruised and battered.

When the mob got their hands on Brown, he was severely beaten, dragged by a rope, shot, and burned on the street. Federal troops would soon descend on Omaha and restore order, but the damage had been done. The incident—occurring three decades before the period traditionally thought of as the civil rights movement—would become one in a long string of violent incidents that would characterize interactions between blacks and whites during the long struggle for civil rights.