The lynching of Will James. Commercial Avenue is jammed with spectators (right) below the electrically lit Hustler's Arch, November 11, 1909. This image was taken moments after the rope broke and James' body fell to the street. After hanging James, the mob turned its attention to the county jail where it seized Henry Salzner, a white man suspected of murdering his wife, and lynched him from a telephone pole.

There were always the contradictions of best and worst. The best of Cairo was described in The Evening Citizen in 1909: "With the return of peace, Cairo was quick to exploit its wartime profits and the booming riverboat trade. The town became a curious mixture of violence and gentility, along the wharfs, saloons and gambling casinos catered to rough river men, while a discreet carriage ride away, the genteel sheltered in near-palatial mansions along 'Millionaire's Row.' Lavish churches, opera houses, orchestras, hotels and monumental government buildings boasted of Cairo's wealth. In 1886, combined river and rail shipments - evaluated at $60,000,000 - gave Cairo the highest per capita commercial valuation in the United States.'

But that same year of 1909 witnessed the worst as well. A black man was lynched after being arrested for the rape and murder of a white woman. Photos show the circus atmosphere of the hanging. News accounts described its barbarity: "(The mob) tried to hang him, but the rope broke; so they shot him, set his body afire, and mutilated it. They then beheaded the body, planting the head on a stake and carrying it to the main square on Commercial Street."

A series of postcards depicted the event, including a photo of James' half-burned head on a stake. It was an event referred to by Stace England in his CD Greetings from Cairo as the "equal opportunity lynch mob" because after Cairo citizens dragged from jail a black man accused of murdering a white woman, they then seized a white man who had been arrested for domestic battery and hanged him, too.

A troubled 20th Century lay ahead.