Thomas was lynched on August 7, 1930 in Marion, Indiana.Abram Smith was also murdered. They had been arrested the night before, charged with robbing and murdering a white factory worker and and raping his girlfriend. A third man, 16 year old James Cameron, narrowly escaped lynching thanks to an unidentified participant who announced that he had nothing to do with the rape or murder. A studio photographer, Lawrence Beitler, took a photograph of the dead bodies hanging from a tree surrounded by a large crowd; thousands of copies of the photograph were sold. The introduction of this article does not provide enough context for readers unfamiliar with the subject. ...

The Ku Klux Klan was active in the area.