Police chief who led four officers into East Eighth Street on the night of February 25, 1946
J. Walter Griffin was serving as Columbia’s police chief when Black residents gathered in East Eighth Street in response to the threatened lynching of James Stephenson. Later that evening, Griffin and three other officers left the courthouse area and walked toward the darkened district, where armed residents had taken positions to prevent a white mob from entering.
The officers were warned not to continue forward, but they advanced. Someone called for gunfire, and all four men were struck by shotgun pellets. None suffered life-threatening injuries, and Griffin recovered at the hospital. The shooting led Sheriff J.J. Underwood to request state assistance, setting in motion the arrival of the Tennessee Highway Patrol and State Guard and the raid that followed the next morning.
Chief J. Walter Griffin
