- “… lynchings like that of Mr. Gunn were meant to send a broader message of domination and to instill fear within the entire Black community. In the aftermath of the lynching, the majority of Black residents of Maryville, including Mr. Gunn's family, fled the city.”
- On this day in 1931, a mob of 2,000 white people seized a Black man named Raymond Gunn, placed him on the roof of a school for white students, and burned him alive.