prevented the mob from killing James. James was reportedly not lucid during the beating, and made no effort to resist or defend himself, even as he was dragged for half-a-block toward a nearby telephone with the intent of lynching him. Three deputies, who noticed the gathering crowd as it began chanting, "Kill," then stepped in, stopped the men from beating James, and arrested James. He was booked into the jail at 6:20 a.m. Five hours later, around 11:45 a.m., Clergy Ballard succumbed to his wounds and died." Statements of attack The day after the attack, Emma Ballard gave the following statement: Several days after the attack, Blanche Ballard, provided the following statement to authorities: Joe James accused Joe James was a young man from Birmingham, Alabama. He had two brothers, Benjamin and Daniel, and two sisters, Lizzie [Lockhart] and Bertha [McCoy]. His father died when he was two. He was then raised by his uncle, Rev. Van B. James, and had a boyhood "but little different from that of the typical negro youth." His uncle raised him in the church, in Avondale, where he learned to read, write and play piano, until he was 13-years-old. He then went to live with his mother, Katherine, back in Birmingham, until she moved to Hattiesburg, Mississippi for work. In 1903, she briefly returned and married Walter Roberts, but left back to Hattiesburg in 1904, taking James with her. In May 1907, James moved back to Birmingham, where he worked in a brush factory, as a "bristle-puller," and drove a coal wagon, before opting to leave. Over about four months, James moved to several places including Memphis, Kansas City, East St. Louis, and Alton, doing a series of odd jobs, before coming to Springfield. He arrived on June 1, 1908, by hitching a ride on freight train going from St. Louis to Chicago. James wandered around Springfield, attempting to obtain work in a brickyard, or as a moulder. However, no such work was available, and he found work at one of the six black saloons (presumably, Bud Brandon's saloon), on Sixth Street. He worked there that evening where he played a game of pool with some "negroes who became sore on him" because he won. He worked past closing, and into the morning of June 2. It was reported that, at some point that day, James got into an altercation at Bud Brandon's saloon,