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Carolina Panthers stadium site of 20th century lynching

Posted at 7:09 AM, Oct 08, 2018
and last updated 2018-10-08 07:09:04-04

A historian says the Carolina Panthers home stadium is the site of an early 20th Century lynching.

The Charlotte Observer reported Friday that the lynching occurred in 1913 where the Bank of America Stadium now stands in Charlotte, North Carolina.

A 19-year-old black laborer named Joe McNeely was dragged from Good Samaritan Hospital and shot to death by a white mob. A lynching does not have to be a hanging. It's defined as killing someone without a legal trial.

Historian Michael Moore said the shooting occurred near the stadium's 20-yard line. It was Mecklenburg County's first documented lynching.

McNeely reportedly had been in a gunfight with a police officer before being taken to the hospital. Moore said the white mob's shooting of McNeely was an act of "racial terror."