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Duluth,
MN USA Builds Memorial to
Black Terrorist Victims
More than 80
years ago, a White woman accused three young Black circus workers of
raping her - not in Natchez, Mississippi, but Duluth, Minnesota.
Subsequently, a mob of 5,000-10,000 men, women, and children terrorized
the three descendants of enslaved Africans, leaving their bodies to
dangle from downtown lampposts.
At the lynching, photographers took pictures of
the three victims: 19-year-old Elias Clayton, 19-year-old Elmer
Jackson, and
20-year-old Isaac McGhie. From pictures taken by photographers at the
atrocity,
the townspeople made postcards and sent them to their friends. 
Duluth is a small city nestled on the tip of Lake Superior, populated
mostly by descendants of German and Scandinavian immigrants. Few
African-Americans lived in Duluth at the time of the murders and only a
small percentage live there now.
Today, unlike most other American jurisdictions, the city of Duluth is
dealing with its past. The city has contributed $71,000 to commemorate
the lives of the three men and sound a call for compassion,
reconciliation, and racial harmony. According to the Commemorative
Committee's co-chair, Henry Banks, "Other communities across America
are looking to Duluth and Duluth is leading the way."
The Commemoration Committee had sculptor Carla Stetson and writer
Anthony Peyton Porter design the monument that features three
larger-than-life sculpted figures cast in bronze, representing Clayton,
Jackson, and McGhie. They
will inscribe the walls of the monument with provocative quotations
from
writers who lived in ancient to modern times. The quotes will deal with
such themes as the oneness of humanity. The monument will include a
small
park.
In an interview with Port of Harlem, Porter says
that the memorial pleases him. "It does recognize, in a fairly small
way, our
humanity, our common humanity," he says. However, he hopes that the
memorial
will provoke people to question their own participation in
self-righteous
activities. He continued, "Simply by isolating this incident, I
think,
misses opportunities to connect these murders with murders all over
the
world that are still going on now - - from the one in Texas a couple of
years
ago [of James Byrd] to the one that is likely to be next month."
The activists spearheading the construction of The Clayton Jackson
McGhie Memorial are seeking an additional $147,000 to complete the park
by September 2003. For additional information, see www.claytonjacksonmcghie.org.
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