A state historical highway marker was dedicated recently in King and Queen County. The marker memorializes James Horace Carter, an African-American man who was lynched 100 years ago on October 12, 1923. Although the incident garnered substantial publicity around the country, no one was ever brought to justice for the Carter lynching, the only documented lynching in King and Queen County. The text of the marker reads:
James Horace Carter, a 45-year-old African American husband and father, was lynched on 12 Oct. 1923 a mile southeast of here. Two weeks before the lynching, a white woman had admitted that Carter was the father of one of her children. He was charged with rape and arrested. While being driven by officers to the King and Queen County jail, a mob seized him from the car, shot him ten times (five in the face, four in the chest, and one in the back) while he was still shackled, and left his body in a ditch. Gov. E. Lee Trinkle offered assistance and the case was widely reported, but no one was prosecuted for the murder. The woman’s husband later used her admission of adultery as grounds for divorce.