Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson & Isaac McGhie

Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson, and Isaac McGhie, three Black men in their early twenties working as laborers for a traveling circus, were lynched by a mob in Duluth on the night of June 15, 1920. The night before, two white teenagers claimed that Black circus workers had robbed them at gunpoint and raped the young woman; a doctor's examination later found no evidence a rape had occurred. Police arrested six Black circus workers regardless. That evening, a mob estimated at 5,000 to 10,000 people gathered outside the jail, seized three of the men, beat them, and hanged them from a light pole in downtown Duluth. The Minnesota National Guard arrived the next morning to protect the three men who survived. No one was ever charged with the lynchings themselves; three white men were later convicted of rioting, a lesser charge. A fourth accused man, Max Mason, was the only person convicted in connection with the underlying accusation and served time in prison; he was granted the state's first posthumous pardon in 2020, a century after the killings.

Duluth, MN · St. Louis County

• 1920: Case opens — victim reported missing or found.
• Documented milestones (renewed investigation, media coverage, family advocacy) to be added as sourced.
• Present: case remains unresolved. No named suspect has been convicted.

• The victims' identities, ages, and the June 15, 1920 date and circumstances, per the Minnesota Historical Society.
• A doctor's examination found no medical evidence supporting the rape accusation, and no one was ever charged with the lynchings themselves, per the same source.

• The specific individuals who carried out the lynchings were never identified or charged.
• What actually occurred between the accusers and the circus workers the night before was never established beyond dispute.

• Minnesota Historical Society — “The Lynchings”
• Smithsonian Magazine — case retrospective
• Project Cold Case
• Murder Accountability Project
• NamUs