I was listening to MPR recently and my ears perked up when I heard 'Duluth' and 'lynching'. A man named Warren Read was being interviewed about his new book, The Lyncher In Me. I immediately realized I had to read it. It's amazing - growing up in Duluth and knowing almost nothing about the lynching of 1920. Did any of you ever learn about it in school? It seems like it would've been a great teaching opportunity. It should've been a required unit as part of the high school history curiculum.
The book was very interesting. Read wrote the book shortly after he discovered that his great grandfather had been one of the ring leaders of the mob - one of three people to spend a short time in prison for it. The questions started flooding into my mind. There were 10,000 people in the mob. Was our grandfather involved? Certainly he would have at least known people who were involved. Did dad ever discuss anything of what he'd heard of the lynching with any of you? It sounds like the girl who claimed she was raped lived real close to our house in West Duluth.
Unbelievably, the picture above was made into a postcard! Can you imagine sending a postcard like that?
In the book Mr. Read roams back and forth between the lynchings, his mother's dysfunctional family, and then his own dysfunctional upbringing.
A memorial has been established - the Clayton Jackson McGhie Memorial - to the memory of the three young men who were killed that day. It's right across the street from where the lynching took place (2nd Av E and 1st St I believe).
Have any of you seen it? The opening ceremony was in 2003. (Video)
6 comments:
Hi everyone. No I never heard of this. How appalling. It was interesting when I was helping an African woman named Queen for several years, she and her husband traveled to Duluth. She came back from her trip and commented to me about how few blacks she saw when she visited. I would have never thought of that.
Yes, I heard about it--probably when they were building the memorial. Never heard about it when in Duluth.
I am reminded, when we were in the "stockade" program at church, we had a family of black kids (2 or 3) for a while. I remember not liking them too much. Not sure why. I hope it wasn't because they were black. Greg or Paul, do you remember them? Do you remember doing the eenie, meenie, minie, mo thing?
Hi Paul (and others)--thanks for your comments and for your invitation to weigh in. I'm sure that many people, if they searched thoroughly, would find things in their family history that would be upsetting. I'm glad that you got the essence of what I was trying to say in the book: that history is not something we should run from, but embrace and learn from. I teach school on Bainbridge Island and one of the more painful elements of our personal history that we study is that of the Japanese Internments of our island residence at the outbreak of WWII. It's important to understand the essence of human nature and our proclivities for making hasty decisions rooted in fear and desperation. Sometimes what seems right and justified at the time shows itself to be so wrong when the dust settles.
Thanks again,
Warren Read
A few years back I was reading a book called Under God which shares within it's pages a bunch of stories from our history, some familiar and some that they never share in the public school system.
I was wondering if any of the stories took place in MN and was surprised to find a story from Duluth in the index. So I read it and was shocked, not knowing this part of our history. We can't change the past, but we can learn from our mistakes.
Dean, I'm blanking on the black family in our church and Stockade. I do remember some black friends at Bethany for a year or so in youth group. They were just as wild as me. The lynching came to my attention several years ago, but I don't remember if it was a newspaper article or if I ran across it somewhere else. Amazing how some things get hidden in the past and others that get blown out of proportion in reporting/history.
Hey, I found you through Tyler's blog. This is so incredible, interesting, and sad. Sad that it happened and sad that it's recognized so infrequently that even people who grew up in Duluth don't know about it. You are right, this should be taught in our schools. We can't undo what happened to these men, but we should at least honor their lives by telling their story. Thanks for shedding some light on it.
I suppose history will always blame the south for racism in America, but it looks like this book will remind us that no one's innocent. I remember when I was in college a few friends of mine and Matt went to Appalachia for a missions trip from North Park and they met a guy who commented that he'd been to Chicago and couldn't believe how racist it was. Sounds hypocritical from an Appalachian, but it's so unfortunately true.
Thanks for the tip about the book--I think I'll check it out.
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