Travelog: Duluth to Montgomery
Follow along as two MPR News journalists take a bus ride from Duluth, Minn. where three black men were lynched in 1920 to Montgomery, Ala. for the opening of a memorial to honor the thousands of African-American men, women and children that were lynched in America.
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Memorial opening, day 2
The names of the men lynched in Duluth are carved in a metal slab at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Ala., on Friday. Tom Weber | MPR News Friday was the second day in Montgomery for the group Minnesotans that set out from Duluth Tuesday evening, headed for Montgomery, Alabama, and the opening of the new National Memorial for Peace and Justice which honors the victims of lynchings in the U.S.
There are programs going on around the city and a big concert tonight. And some couldn't get in to the memorial yesterday because of the crowds, so they are visiting it today.In the memorial, a metal slab hangs for each county in the country was the site of a lynching.St. Louis County hangs there, representing the lynching of three young men in Duluth after a mob dragged them from jail and hung them from a light pole. At the scene that night, a photograph was taken that was turned into a postcard.• Documentary: Postcard from a lynching
Rain didn't lesson the impact of the memorial on its opening day. Evan Frost | MPR News Tom Weber and Evan Frost from MPR News are with the group and you can follow along with them here.
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Minnesota Historical Society: Resources related to the tragic events surrounding the Duluth Lynchings of June 15, 1920.
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EJI - Explore The Map
We cannot heal the deep wounds inflicted during the era of racial terrorism until we tell the truth about it. -
Inside the memorial to victims of lynching
Oprah Winfrey reports on the Alabama memorial dedicated to thousands of African-American men, women and children lynched over a 70-year period following the Civil War -
Minnesota northernmost state in new national memorial
Emma Sapong - MPR News
In 1920, three young African-American men — Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson and Isaac McGhie — were lynched in front a crowd of thousands in downtown Duluth. The lynching marks the northernmost location documented in the Montgomery, Ala. memorial.
Melanie Adams, a senior director at the Minnesota Historical Society, said six black circus workers were falsely accused of raping a young white woman. They were arrested, but a mob broke into the jail and grabbed three of the six men and lynched them. The gruesome incident caused a migration of African-Americans out of Duluth and to the Twin Cities and as far west as California.
"African Americans started leaving Duluth for many of the same reasons they left the south in terms of not feeling safe," Adams said.
This photo shows part of the display at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, a new memorial to honor thousands of people killed in racist lynchings, Sunday, April 22, 2018, in Montgomery, Ala.
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Rhunette Moore Cook, left, talks with Carl Crawford before getting on the bus to Montgomery, Ala., in Duluth on Tuesday. Evan Frost | MPR News On the road from Duluth to Montgomery
A group set out from Duluth Tuesday evening, headed for Montgomery, Alabama, and the opening of the new National Memorial for Peace and Justice which honors the victims of lynchings in the U.S.In the memorial, a metal slab hangs for each county in the country was the site of a lynching.St. Louis County hangs there, representing the lynching of three young men in Duluth after a mob dragged them from jail and hung them from a light pole. At the scene that night, a photograph was taken that was turned into a postcard.• Documentary: Postcard from a lynchingThe group from Duluth includes Portia Johnson, who has long worked on civil rights in the Duluth area, and has been involved in the national memorial.Last year, she told Tom Weber that the memorial is important. "It is uncomfortable a lot of times because there's a very small population of African-Americans here. People are still saying, 'Well, why are you bringing this up?'"She recently had surgery and thought she might have to travel in a wheelchair, but she said she is determined to make this trip. Turns out, she's on her own two feet.Duluth police chief Mike Tusken has a personal connection to the lynching. When plans for the the Clayton Jackson McGhie Memorial were announced, his mother told him that it was his great aunt who had made the accusation of rape that lead to the lynchings. “It really took me years to come to terms with it,” he said. “Initially I felt shame, so much so that I didn’t know how to act.”He said he wrestled with accounting for the sins of past. “Now that I know, should I go be overtly and outwardly trying to make amends? Or do I act like it never happened, like it worked for the previous generation?”For him, he said his career in the police department has given him the opportunity to make changes, create community outreach and try to mend distrust. Tusken couldn’t make the bus trip, but he is flying down to meet the other Minnesotans in Montgomery.Tom Weber and Evan Frost from MPR News will also be with the group and you can follow along with them here. The bus left Duluth at 6 pm Tuesday, and will arrive in Alabama Wednesday night. Thursday the group will attend the memorial opening, Friday they will attend workshops and talks and head home Friday night. -
Lynchings across the country had striking similarities
After the Duluth lynching in 1920, a graphic photograph of three black men killed by being hanged from a light pole was distributed as a postcard. Turns out, that wasn't unusual. -
Duluth to Montgomery: 'It's going to be painful and exciting'
A group left Duluth Tuesday evening for a round trip that will span thousands of miles through eight states, bookended by memorials for victims of lynching.