The 1892 hate crime of the lynching and murder of Robert Lewis, an African American man who previously lived in Port Jervis, sparked former Port Jervis Police Detective Michael J. Worden’s mission to write his book, “Lynched by a Mob” (2022). 

To showcase the literature and highlight the importance of the cause behind it, author Worden held a presentation sponsored by Town of Highland Historian Debra Conway in honor of Black History Month at the town hall on February 10, which saw over 30 people in attendance. 

Interested listeners asked Worden questions on the presentation for more than an hour after he finished. 

In his book, he tells the brutal story of how an angry mob of several hundred men dragged Robert Lewis, also known as Robert Jackson, nearly half a mile through the streets and hanged him from a tree. His captors and executioners were never named nor punished.

Conway noted she saw Worden’s program on C-Span and sought to set up the program in Eldred to boost the important topic of his book.

The book won a gold medal in the true crime category of the 2023 Independent Publisher Book Awards, also known as the IPPY Awards, and the 2023 Next Generation Indie Book Awards also awarded the book a gold medal in true crime. “Lynched by a Mob” can be found available for purchase online.

“The story is riveting, and made more so by the fact that this act of racial terrorism took place so close to home,” Conway said. 

“The horror of the story will shake you to your core, especially if you have believed that something like a lynching could never happen here. The presentation is something everyone should see for so many reasons. It will make you think.”