The Jonesboro intersection where a 1920 mob killing of a Black man went unaddressed by officials — documented by Wikipedia and the Encyclopedia of Arkansas
S Main St and W Monroe Ave, Jonesboro, AR 72401
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
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Free
Public street intersection; no admission required.
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Downtown urban intersection with sidewalks
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Documented Racial Terror Lynching · 1920 Jim Crow Era Violence · Encyclopedia of Arkansas Historical Record · Institutional Failure to Protect Custody
On Christmas night 1920, a Jonesboro police officer was killed during a raid on a craps game. Wade Thomas, a Black man, was among those present and was taken into custody, held in the Craighead County Jail. On December 26, a white mob of approximately 400 people gathered at the jail, demanded Thomas be handed over, and met no resistance from authorities. Thomas was removed from custody and taken to the corner of Main and Monroe Streets in downtown Jonesboro, where he was killed — hanged from a telephone pole.
No one was prosecuted for the killing. Mob violence against Black residents in the American South was rarely prosecuted during this period; local law enforcement's failure to protect Thomas from removal from custody was itself a form of institutional participation. The Encyclopedia of Arkansas documents the event with historical specificity, providing a public record that situates the killing within the broader pattern of racial terror in Arkansas during the early 20th century.
The intersection at Main and Monroe in downtown Jonesboro shows no visible historical marker acknowledging what occurred there as of mid-2026. The site is documented in Wikipedia's standalone article on the lynching of Wade Thomas and in the Encyclopedia of Arkansas. It is not otherwise commemorated or memorialized at the location itself.
The Equal Justice Initiative's National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama lists Arkansas lynching victims from this era. Thomas's death is part of that broader historical record.
Sources
No documented paranormal tradition is associated with this intersection. The site appears here as a True Crime Site — a location where an extrajudicial killing occurred in public, before hundreds of witnesses, with official acquiescence, and where no prosecution followed.
The historical record is what is significant. Wade Thomas was taken from lawful custody and killed. The location — a downtown Jonesboro street corner — has returned to ordinary commercial use without formal acknowledgment of what happened there. The absence of a marker is itself part of the record.
Notable Entities
The intersection of Main and Monroe Streets in downtown Jonesboro marks the location where Wade Thomas was killed by a mob of approximately 400 people on December 26, 1920. No formal memorial exists at the site as of 2026. A visit is an act of historical acknowledgment rather than tourism.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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