House is considering a bill that would put lynching sites in western Tennessee on track to become part of the National Park Service to advance discussion of the nation’s often violent racial history.Īt Friday’s event, former State Sen. In a trend this year in Congress, the U.S. The era of racial terrorism shaped the geographic, social and economic conditions of African Americans, and America as a whole, in ways that are still evident today.” Government officials frequently turned a blind eye or condoned the mob violence. “These lynchings were frequently carried out in broad daylight and perpetrators could expect impunity. “They involved groups of white people committing acts of fatal violence against African Americans to instill fear in the entire Black community,” the project says. Its Community Remembrance Project described the “racial terror lynchings as more than just hangings.” The Equal Justice Initiative says that more than 4,400 African Americans were lynched across 20 states between the end of Reconstruction in 18. The Omaha Community Council for Racial Justice and Reconciliation organized both ceremonies, which are part of the Montgomery Alabama-based Equal Justice Initiative Community Remembrance Project. Soil was collected previously from outside the Douglas County Courthouse and stored in a jar to recall a hateful chapter in Omaha history. A similar marker, dedicated a year ago to Brown, is positioned across from that of Smith. The public hanging of Smith occurred nearly three decades before the 1919 lynching of Will Brown, also outside the courthouse, which a White mob set on fire. White people collected pieces of the telegraph pole used to lynch Smith as souvenirs.Īlso known as Joe Coe, Smith was married, was a dad and had worked as a railroad porter. The local coroner concluded Smith had died of “fright.” “Within hours, thousands of white men, women and children shouting, ‘Bring the nigger out,’ marched on the Douglas County Jail and Courthouse.”īy the time his brutally beaten and dragged body was hanged at 17th and Harney Streets, it was lifeless. The next day, police arrested Smith, without evidence and despite the fact that he had an alibi. In part, the message reads: Local newspapers falsely reported that a white girl died after being assaulted by a Black man. Beverly Thompson followed with a rendition of “Strange Fruit,” a haunting song that mourns lynchings.Ĭynthia Robinson of the Black Studies Department at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and Eric Ewing of the Great Plains Black Museum recited the inscription on both the front and back of the plaque. Ninth-grader Kaleciana Perry of Central High School read a dramatic poem.įormer City Councilman Franklin Thompson led the group in singing the Black national anthem. Up to 100 or so people gathered by the courthouse steps, listening to song, poetry and remarks from community leaders including Williams. Smith, honor his life and to serve as a focal point for people’s memories through the years to come, that such uninformed, wrong-minded mob violence never occur in our city again,” said the Rev. A ceremony marks the unveiling of a George Smith memorial outside the Douglas County Courthouse. On Friday, however, a ceremony at the new memorial attempted to take a step toward racial reconciliation. ![]() ![]() So reads the last sentence of a freshly planted plaque that was unveiled Friday in front of the Douglas County Courthouse, marking the murder of a 20-year-old Black man at the hands of a White mob in 1891. ![]() If the subtotal is greater than $1,000, please e-mail for a freight quote.OMAHA - “No one was ever held accountable for the lynching of George Smith.”
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