Biography
Oscar Livingston was held in the jail at Pointe-a-la-Hache, Louisiana, in 1931 after being accused of attempting to rape a white woman. A contemporary report dates his arrest to July 25 and says he denied the accusation. TIME reported that a mob removed him from jail eight days after his incarceration and killed him. His case is included as racial persecution and a denial of due process in custody, not as evidence that he belonged to a political party.
Contemporary custody and racial-persecution reports
Oscar Livingston was held in the jail at Pointe-a-la-Hache, Louisiana, in 1931 after being accused of attempting to rape a white woman. A contemporary report dates his arrest to July 25 and says he denied the accusation. TIME reported that a mob removed him from jail eight days after his incarceration and killed him. His case is included as racial persecution and a denial of due process in custody, not as evidence that he belonged to a political party.
The Southern Worker of August 15, 1931, page 2, reports that jailer L. T. Fontenelle opened the jail and identified Livingston’s second-floor cell to the mob. This allegation is attributed to the contemporary paper, not presented as a later judicial finding. TIME’s August 17 account explicitly says the mob removed Livingston eight days after his incarceration. Eight days are preserved as reported actual confinement, not a nominal sentence or an interval calculated from the arrest date. July 25 is recorded as arrest only: the physical admission day and exact final endpoint remain unknown. The sources report his killing but do not independently establish an exact death day here. Their reported ages of 22 and 23 conflict, so no age or birth date is entered. No party membership, union affiliation, personal demographics or additional imprisonment is inferred.
Sources: TIME, August 17, 1931, Races: Black, White & Blood; Southern Worker, August 15, 1931, original page 2.
