Family of Indiana lynching victims against proposed memorial

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Updated 2:55 pm, Thursday, June 7, 2018

MARION, Ind. (AP) — Relatives of two black men who were lynched in 1930 are opposing a proposed memorial honoring the two victims.

Abram Smith, 19, and Thomas Shipp, 18, were accused of killing a white man and raping a white woman, The Chronicle Tribune reported . They were dragged from the Grant County Jail by a mob and hanged from a tree on the Grant County Courthouse lawn.

A controversial photo of the lynching has since become infamous. It shows the men's bodies hanging from a tree surrounded by a crowd of white onlookers, some smiling.

Huntington University professor Jack Heller approached county commissioners about two weeks ago with the idea of creating a memorial. Heller said he was representing the Alabama-based Equal Justice Initiative, which had recently opened a lynching museum. The initiative is seeking to have a memorial stone placed at every lynching site in the country.

Read more: https://www.chron.com/news/us/article/Family-of-Indiana-lynching-victims-against-12975638.php

[DRoseDARs]

1. The families said no, that should be the end of it. And before anyone says "white privilege"

The founder of EJI is a black lawyer and the staff is a healthy mix of black and white, men and women. I know, my first suspicion was this was a mostly white non-profit group seeking to go against the wishes of the families with good intent, but nope.

Anyway, as stated, families said no that should be the end of it. EJI needs to let it go.

[marble falls]

2. The family gets the last word: no memorial specificaly to thier murdered ...

loved ones. I understand their concern regarding possible (probable) vandalism and reopening healing wounds.