The Mar. 3, 1910, trial of Allen Brooks, a black man in his sixties charged with molesting a three-year-old white girl, was interrupted by a Dallas lynch mob hellbent on dispensing its own barbaric brand of justice.
According to the “Handbook of Texas,” the last word on all things Texan, there were 492 lynchings in Texas between 1862 and 1930. Most were carried out in the dead of night far from prying eyes, but more than a few illegal “executions” took place in broad daylight before thousands of spectators.
On the day of the trial, Sheriff Arthur Ledbetter secretly brought Allen Brooks back to Dallas from McKinney, where he had been sent for safekeeping. With everyone in law enforcement expecting trouble, the police commissioner put the entire force at Ledbetter’s disposal. But the sheriff, confident his 150 deputies were a match for any mob, asked only for a couple dozen officers.
