Cold Case Files: Confession to 1912 attack led to the lynching of Pope County coal miner Franklin Monroe

In August 1912, Monroe Franklin, a Black man in his late twenties or early thirties, was lynched in Russellville, Arkansas. He had recently moved to Pope County from Oklahoma to work in the coal mines. An accusation of assaulting a white woman led to his arrest and, soon after, his death by a mob. No one was ever charged or prosecuted. The case remains unsolved.

Pope County had a population of about 24,000, mostly white and rural. Russellville was the county seat. Jim Crow laws were in force, and segregation was strict. Black residents faced disenfranchisement and the constant threat of violence. Lynchings were common across the South and in Arkansas, with at least 231 Black victims recorded in the state between 1860 and 1930.

In Pope County, earlier lynchings had occurred in 1875 (John Hogan) and 1897 (Presley Oats), both involving accusations against Black men and no arrests of the perpetrators.

Monroe Franklin was listed in the 1910 census in Oklahoma with his wife and six children. He had likely moved to Arkansas for work. His status as a newcomer made him more vulnerable in the local environment.

n the evening of August 16, 1912, a white widow living south of Russellville reported that two Black men attacked her and that one assaulted her. She reported the incident the next day. On August 17, authorities arrested Franklin at a coal mine near town. He was held in the county jail.

During a hearing on August 19 before Justice of the Peace S. A. Walker, Franklin reportedly confessed and named another man, Pet Grey, as an accomplice. Grey was then arrested and placed in the same cell. Grey denied any involvement.

Newspaper reports from the time described Franklin as a recent arrival from Oklahoma and repeated the accuser's account without verification.

On the evening of August 19, after a town meeting at the courthouse ended, a large group of men, estimated at several hundred, went to the jail. They overpowered the sheriff and a constable, entered the cellblock, and took Franklin. He tried to climb to the top of the cell but was pulled down. The mob placed a rope around his neck, took him outside, and hanged him from a telephone pole near the railroad depot, about a block from the courthouse.

Pet Grey was not harmed. The mob determined he was not involved and released him. He was moved out of town soon after

.The lynching took place without gunfire. The crowd dispersed afterward.

No investigation followed. No one was arrested or tried for the killing. Franklin's body was likely buried in an unmarked grave. His family in Oklahoma had no further documented contact with authorities

.This incident fit a larger pattern. From 1882 to 1968, more than 4,700 lynchings were recorded in the United States, many in the South. Arkansas had a high number relative to its population.

Most cases resulted in no prosecutions

The Monroe Franklin case is unsolved. There are no surviving witnesses, no physical evidence to test, and no record of any official inquiry. It is documented in contemporary newspapers and listed in historical lynching records.

The case illustrates the use of mob violence to enforce racial control in the early 20th century. It remains one of the open files from that era in Pope County.