Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 80, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 June 1903 — TEACHER IS HANGED. [ARTICLE]

TEACHER IS HANGED.

NEGRO LYNCHED BY MOB AT BELLEVILLE, ILL. Avenger* Proceed Qn ietly and Kill' Colored After Dragging Him from Jail —Superintendent Shot for Refusing to Renew Certificate. A mob of infuriated citizens in Belleville at midnight lynched .W. T. Wyatt, a colored school teacher of East St. Louis, two hours after he had shot and mortally wounded Charles Hertel, county superintendent of schools, because the latter refused to renew his teaching certificate. The colored man was hanged 7 by the mob despite the appeals of the Mayor, a&d, other officials for order. The mob conducted its work in a perfectly orderly manner, and many of the citizens of Belleville knew nothing of the lynching. _ . Hertel was shot iii his office by the teacher, who had called to have his certificate renewed. A young man named Fielder was in the office when the shooting occurred. He grappled with Wyatt, but the negro beat him off with the butt of his revolver, inflicting a revere scalp wound. A passing policeman hurried lnto_the room and succeeded in arresting the negro. He was hurried to the county jail and the place was surrounded with policemen, as it was feared that a mob would form.

A couple of hours passed when suddenly an orderly crowd of determined citizens appeared before the jail and forced a passage to Wyatt’s cell. Securing the prisoner they dragged him out and hanged him. Before being executed Wyatt averted the shooting was the result of a political grudge. Wyatt was hanged to a telephone pole in the public square In front of the court house. After he was pronounced dead his body was burned. Superintendent Hertel was removed to the hospital. The ball entered his right breast near the nipple and ranged upward. He is unable to use his right arm, but is resting well, although the ball is still in his body. State’s Attorney Farmer will make every effort to fix tho responsibility of the lynching upon th& leaders. Wyatt was a graduate of the University of Michigan and was not refused a teacher’s certificate because of lack of knowledge, but because charges of immorality had been preferred against him.