The site of the former grand Kimball House Hotel. A growing mob of nearly 5,000 white men gathered in this area after work, incensed by evening newspaper headlines describing false reports of white women being assaulted by Black men. Decatur Street was a literal melting pot and the location of many so-called “Decatur Street Dives,” meaning bars, saloons and places of entertainment. Kuhn suggests this area may have been targeted by the mob because it was described to be an “area of Black criminality.”
