The town of Center made national news twice in 1920s for the lynchings of black murder suspects without a trial. On August 3, 1920, Lige Daniels was seized by an angry mob that broke into the Shelby County Jail, where he was being held on charges of the beating death of a woman. Daniels, an 18-year old black man, was dragged out and hanged from a tree in front of the courthouse, famous as the "Center Hanging Oak". The oak tree was used again as a gallows on May 21, 1928, when another mob intercepted another 18-year old African-American, accused murderer Eolis Evans, as he was being returned to the county jail. The "hanging oak" tree itself died in 1990 and was cut down.