Max & Rosa Lubelsky
Max Lubelsky ran a clothing store at 543 King Street with his wife, Rosa. The couple lived above the shop with their child. On June 21, 1910, Lubelsky’s friend, the peddler Max Posner, who lived at 56 Line Street, and his young daughter came to visit Lubelsky. To Posner’s horror, he found his friend lying on the floor unconscious and bleeding. The police were called, and Charles Karesh came from next door to help. Lubelsky was rushed to the hospital, where Dr. Kivy Pearlstine attended him, but he died within the hour. A manhunt began for a black man said to have been seen lurking on the premises.
A few weeks later, on July 8, 1910, Lubelsky’s widow, Rosa, was attacked inside the shop. When she ran screaming out to the street, nearby merchants Isaac Goldman (or Goodman) and Moses Needle ran after and captured a black man identified as Daniel Duncan. He denied any involvement with the crime, but Mrs. Lubelsky identified him as her attacker. Daniel Duncan maintained his innocence to the end, but, on July 7, 1911, he was executed—the last man to be hanged in the city of Charleston. The entire stock of Max Lubelsky’s tailor-made clothing, suits, and trousers was closed out at half-price at the end of July. A devastating hurricane swept across the city a month later, and many African-Americans declared it was God’s wrath avenging the death of an innocent man.
For more on the murder of Max Lubelsky and the trial of Daniel Duncan, see Charleston’s Trial: Jim Crow Justice by Daniel J. Crooks. See also, Dead Weight, a novel based on these events, by Batt Humphreys.
Max Lubelsky, ca. 1910
This image appeared in the book Charleston’s Trial: Jim Crow Justice, by Daniel J. Crooks, about the trial of Daniel Duncan, the African-American man accused of Lubelsky's murder.
Rosa and Joseph Lubelsky
The Lubelsky family provided this photograph of Rosa Lubelsky and her son Joseph, ca. 1910, for publication in Daniel J. Crooks's book, Charleston’s Trial: Jim Crow Justice, about the trial of Daniel Duncan, the African-American man accused of Max Lubelsky's murder.