Remembering Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson, and Isaac McGhie at Annual Gravesite Service
The ceremony is held each year to honor the three black men who worked with a traveling circus that had stopped in Duluth were publicly lynched.
DULUTH, Minn. – Members of the community visited the gravesites of Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson, and Isaac McGhie the evening before he 100th anniversary of their lynchings.
The ceremony is held each year to honor the three black men who worked with a traveling circus that had stopped in Duluth were publicly lynched.
The men were accused of raping a white woman.
Before the men could have due process and a fair trial, an angry mob of thousands of people dragged them out of jail, beat them, then hung them from a lamppost in downtown Duluth on June 15, 1920.
This year’s remembrance was supposed to attract scores of people, but COVID-19 put a damper on that.
Instead, an intimate ceremony was held which was broadcast virtually for people to reflect on what happened a century ago.
“If we don’t remember our history we tend to repeat it so that’s why we come here every year we have a remembrance for him every year so to make for sure that the community is aware and to make sure that this doesn’t happen again because it could very easily happen again,” said Kim Green, the co-chair of the Clayton Jackson McGhie Memorial.
Green says it is important for community members to educate themselves about different cultures and learn to stop being so judgemental.
She also describes George Floyd’s recent death as a modern-day lynching, saying that racism continues to be a major issue in cities all across America.
“We continue to battle systemic racism. People think that racism isn’t happening anymore but it’s camouflaged, racism is happening it’s alive and well,” said Green.
Monday’s 100th anniversary will feature a fellowship barbeque hosted by young African-American men.
Stephan Witherspoon, another co-chair of the Clayton Jackson McGhie Memorial says all are int he community are welcome in the studio.
