Anthony Crawford in 1910, six years before his death at the hands of a lynch mob.

On October 21, 1916, successful African American entrepreneur and community leader Anthony P. Crawford was murdered by a lynch mob in Abbeville, South Carolina. A white mob beat, stabbed, shot, and hung Crawford, a 56-year-old black farmer, in the Abbeville town square, after he dared to argue with a white merchant over the price of cottonseed.

Around 200 white men abducted Crawford and dragged down three flights of stairs amongst a cheering bloodthirsty mob, where they proceeded to beat him with rocks, wagon boards, jump, and spit on him. The mob then dragged him through the black section of town with a rope around his neck as a warning. The mob then stole a lumber wagon from a black driver and used it to take Crawford to a fairground nearby.

Crawford, likely dead by that point, was still hung from a tree, and whites riddled his body with bullets by the bloodthirsty white mob that resented his wealth. The patriarch of a large, multi-generational family, and the owner of 427 acres of land, Crawford was a successful farmer and leader whose murder had long-reaching effects. The gruesome public murder, though committed openly, did not lead to prosecution or conviction for any members of the mob.

On October 23, 1916, the white citizens of Abbeville, including many members of the lynch mob, voted to expel the remainder of Crawford's family from South Carolina, and to seize their property. They also voted to close down all the black-owned businesses in Abbeville. The Crawfords requested they be given until the November 15 and it was granted. They did indeed leave, leaving behind their family's generational assets.