The lynching at The Curve in Memphis --- Part II

Ida Bell Wells-Barnett 

(July 16, 1862 – March 25, 1931)

The lynching at The Curve in Memphis

The white grocer Barrett returned the following day, March 3, 1892, to the People's Grocery with a Shelby County Sheriff's Deputy, looking for William Stewart. 

But Calvin McDowell, who greeted Barrett, indicated that Stewart was not present. Barrett was dissatisfied with the response and was frustrated that the People's Grocery was competing with his store. 

Angry about the previous day's mêlée, Barrett responded that "blacks were thieves" and hit McDowell with a pistol. McDowell wrestled the gun away and fired at Barrett—missing narrowly. McDowell was later arrested but subsequently released.^[19]
 
On March 5, 1892, a group of six white men including a sheriff's deputy took electric streetcars to the People's Grocery. 

The group of white men were met by a barrage of bullets from the People's Grocery, and Shelby County Sheriff Deputy Charley Cole was wounded, as well as civilian Bob Harold. 

Hundreds of whites were deputized almost immediately to put down what was perceived by the local Memphis newspapers Commercial and Appeal-Avalanche as an armed rebellion by black men in Memphis.^[20]