Dr. Perry Bush, professor of history, will present the Colloquium, "We Have them Whipped Here: Lynching and the Role of Law in Lima," on Friday, Sept. 8. During the presentation, Bush will tell the story of the last attempted lynching in the state of Ohio. 

In 1916, an angry mob in Lima, Ohio, went after Allen County Sheriff Sherman Eley for protecting the location of a black man who was accused of raping a local woman. Knowing the accused man was in grave danger, Eley moved him out of the county jail and into a facility in Putnam County. In the accused man’s absence, the mob went after Eley and his family instead.  

Bush says the story is one of “courage, anti-racism and commitment to the rule of law.” The professor began researching the story with Anna Selfridge, curator and archivist at the Allen County Museum, last year. During the presentation, Bush will set the story in its historical context of American racial dynamics of a century ago.

His presentation is free and open to the public beginning at 4 p.m. in Centennial Hall’s Stutzman Lecture Hall.