Claude Banks, July 21, 1938

Claude Banks, a 23-year-old young man who lived in Madison County, Mississippi was shot while driving with a friend through the Mississippi city of Canton. The car crashed and his friend Willie Jones was grabbed by a racist mob. The mob was acting on a false accusation by O.B. McAdams who said he had been robbed and assaulted by a Negro. Banks family hired a white private investigator, Howard Kester, who was able to obtain evidence that Banks and Jones were not involved in the alleged assault and robbery of McAdams and that McAdams had lied.