Duluth Delegation to Attend Unveiling of Museum of Peace and Justice

Duluthians Are Raising Money for Their Trip to the Alabama Museum Dedicated to the Legacy of Enslaved African Americans

DULUTH, Minn. – This week, a delegation from Duluth will attend the unveiling of the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alamama. It will become the first memorial dedicated to the legacy of enslaved African Americans.

Recently, a walking tour of the Duluth lynchings was given to raise money for the Duluth delegation’s trip.

Many people have seen the Clayton Jackson McGhie Memorial on East First Street in Duluth dedicated to three black men lynched in 1920.

When it was built in 2003, it was the first lynching memorial of its kind anywhere across the country.

“A lot of people know that the memorial is there but they don’t necessarily know the story,” said Heidi Bakk-Hansen, the Clayton Jackson McGhie board secretary.

Bakk-Hansen is a founding member of the memorial committee.

“We always felt that you couldn’t talk about racism in Duluth before you addressed this major event, that it was the place to start a conversation,” she said.

She gives about thirty tours every year, taking people from the old jailhouse on Superior Street, where the three men were taken by a lynch mob.

“Most of the buildings that are here were there a hundred years ago and so it gives you a context,” said Bakk-Hansen. “One of the most famous photos taken of the crowd that attacked the jail was taken from above on top of the casino.”

The walking tour ends at the memorial Heidi helped create, taking groups past sites the mob filled ninety-eight years ago.

“If we don’t talk about racism, if we don’t talk about the history of racism in Duluth, that we can’t move on from that, that we can’t deal with the things that are going on in our community now,” said Becky Nelson, who took the tour as part of Duluth’s Feminist Action Collective.

This Tuesday, Heidi and other Duluthians will board a bus to Montgomery, Alabama to be there for the unveiling of the first monument aiming to start that conversation nationally.

“When we go to Montgomery, we are sort of joining hands with the rest of the country,” said Bakk-Hansen.

Before they go, they’re trying to raise $12,000 so more people can attend. So far, they’ve raised more than $10,000.

The delegation will return with a pillar from the Museum of Peace and Justice, commemorating the Duluth lynching.

“I am really looking forward to when we as a community have the pillar here, especially keeping it in the hillside I think is a great idea,” said Nelson.

You can donate to the Duluth delegation’s trip online.