The last of the 15 lynchings in Ohio history took place in 1911.
Executive summary
Yes — multiple historical records and memorial projects report the last documented lynching in Ohio occurred in 1911, most specifically on June 27, 1911 in Cleveland, and is associated with a Black man named John Jordan [1] [2] [3]. That statement sits within a complex and contested archival record: historians and memorial projects count Ohio lynchings differently, and some sources note the state’s total is at least 15 but possibly higher depending on definitions and newly recovered incidents [4] [2] [5].
1. The documented end point: June 27, 1911 in Cleveland
Local and national memorial work identifies June 27, 1911, when a mob killed John Jordan after a chase related to the alleged theft of cherries, as Cuyahoga County’s documented lynching and — in many modern tallies — the last recorded lynching in Ohio; the Equal Justice Initiative and Cleveland commemorations mark that date and victim with a historical marker and memorial efforts [1] [2] [6].
2. How “15 lynchings” is reported and why counts vary
Several reputable projects and historians put Ohio’s recorded lynchings at roughly 15; the Equal Justice Initiative’s Community Remembrance Project uses that figure while acknowledging gaps and local research that can raise the number, and the America’s Black Holocaust Museum’s Ohio Lynching Victims Memorial lists victims and dates but cautions that names and details are missing for some cases [4] [7] [2]. Scholarly surveys that rely on the Tuskegee Institute’s historic ledger and state-focused studies produce different totals — for example, broader Tuskegee-derived tallies for Ohio vary across publications and scholars because of differing inclusion criteria (race of victims, what counts as lynching versus mob violence, and timeframes) [8] [5] [9].
3. Definitions matter: lynching, mob violence, and “last” events
Scholars emphasize that lynching is a form of extra‑judicial mob killing and that records often conflate lynching with other fatal mob violence; some county histories list successful versus attempted lynchings separately, and contemporaneous newspapers and Black press sometimes disagreed about labeling events as lynchings, which complicates a neat “last” date [3] [8] [2]. Academic treatments of Ohio note attempted lynchings continued across decades and that lynchings occurred both in the state’s Black and white populations, so the notion of a final incident depends on the source’s criteria [8] [5].
4. Contradictory claims and contested later incidents
Popular and partisan outlets have highlighted discrepancies in individual recollections — for example, commentary around actress Pam Grier’s remarks drew on memorial records to note that documented lynchings in Ohio ended before her birth [10] [11] — and isolated local claims sometimes cite later violent events or “underground” incidents not always recognized by historians; one legal office account referenced a 1932 South Point killing, but that claim sits apart from the primary memorial and academic catalogues that mark 1911 as the last documented lynching in Ohio [10] [2]. Reporting and scholarship therefore can appear to contradict one another when they use different source bases or definitions.
5. Historical context and memorial reckoning
Ohio’s record of lynching fits into a national pattern of racial and extra‑legal violence that memorial projects like the Equal Justice Initiative and the America’s Black Holocaust Museum have been reconstructing; those projects place Ohio’s documented victims in regional and national context, noting at least 15 Ohio victims on national exhibits while urging community research because additional cases likely remain unrecorded [2] [4] [7]. This is why authoritative public history initiatives, not single news items or anecdotes, are the best guides to which event is considered the “last” by current scholarship and commemoration [1] [7].