Moberly is a city in Randolph County, Missouri, United States. The population was 13,974 at the 2010 census.HistoryMoberly was founded in 1866, and named after Colonel William E. Moberly, the first president of the Chariton and Randolph County railroads.Like other towns in the Little Dixie region of Missouri in which it is located, Moberly has a history of racial violence. On February 18, 1893, John Hughes, an African American, was lynched by whites because he was deemed to have insulted a white person. In November 1919, meanwhile, four African-American men alleged to have beaten and robbed a white farmer were arrested. A mob of white men built a fire in Forest Park -- today's Rothwell Park -- and removed the arrested men from the jail. When they attempted to hang George Adams, one of the African-American men, from a tree, the limb broke and when Adams tried to escape the mob shot him dead. The Kansas City Star called the event "a disgrace to the community and the state."The Missouri state Moberly Correctional Center was constructed two miles south of Moberly in 1963 as a minimum-security prison. As of 2014 it houses about 1800 minimum and medium security inmates.On Independence Day, 1995, a tornado ripped through downtown Moberly. There were no reported deaths, but there was a large amount of structural damage. Another tornado tore through the area (Renick)(39.420398, -92.438831)(U.S. Census)|Whitetornado]], 9.7% African American, 0.4% Native American, 0.6% Asian, 0.3% from other races, and 2.6% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.1% of the population.