He also said the state had lynchings as recently as the 1980s . He had also referred mistakenly to West Virginia 's having had lynchings as recently as the 1980s , but state scholars disputed his statement , observing that , whereas lynchings did occur in Alabama as recently as 1981 , according to `` the director of state archives and history '' quoted in The Charleston Gazette , `` The last documented lynching in West Virginia took place in Lewisburg in 1931 . ''