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| Minnesota Point from the hill above Duluth in 1875 (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
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| Memorial (Photo credit: holisticgeek) |
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| English: Panorama of Duluth, Minnesota, c1898 (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
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| African American and Hispanic American workers on strike against Kellwood, wearing placards that encourage support for better wages (Photo credit: Kheel Center, Cornell University) |
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| English: Photo of public lynching of Henry Smith in Paris, Texas in 1893. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
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| A postcard of a Duluth lynchings, June 15, 1920 (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
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| A man lynched from a tree. Face partially concealed by angle and headgear. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
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| A memorial in Duluth honors three workers who were lynched there in 1920. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
During this week in history: Rare Triple Lynching in Duluth, Minnesota
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As a society, we rarely take time to study the past and worse we frequently forget about important and tragic events.
Today we can reflect on an important and generally forgotten event:
the lynching of three black men, Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson, and Isaac
McGhie, in Minnesota, this week in 1920. In Minnesota, these men were
the only blacks ever lynched.
The article below is based on and taken from an article I wrote which will appear in an upcoming book, the Encyclopedia of Disasters and Tragic Events and How They Changed American History.
After the Civil War ended racialized enslavement, African-Americans
still had it rough in the United States, very rough. Most historians
even say it was “worse” because whites now actively had motivations to
murder and hurt blacks in new and far worse ways and more often than
ever before.
One of the new forms of discrimination directed toward blacks after
the Civil War was lynching. From 1882 to 1930, there were 4,587 lynching
victims, 3,306 of these African-American—the vast majority of these
were in the South and only involved one victim.
I put this graph together to give you an idea of the number of
lynchings per year. I know it is hard to see, sorry. The blue line
represents white lynching victims, the red line black lynching victims.
(BTW, I am well aware of the very problematic nature of the labels
"white" and "black" - that's for another diary.) The graph starts with
1882 and goes to 1968. The vasty majority were from 1882 to 1930.
Although somewhat a debate over words, perhaps, a “lynching” was very
different than a “hanging.” A lynching would include extralegal mods
and mutilation of the body before and after the death, for example.
On June 15, 1920, in Duluth, Minnesota, a mob of somewhere around six
to ten thousand men, women, and even children, gathered together to
murder three black men accused of rape. The total population was just
under 100,000 (with 495 blacks and 29,675 immigrants).
It all started twenty-six hours earlier when Irene Tusken, 19, and
her boyfriend, James Sullivan went to a traveling circus on June 14.
When Sullivan went to work that evening, he told his dad that Tusken had
been raped by a group of black men and that they had both been
attacked. His dad called the Duluth chief of police, John Murphy.
As miscegenation was a deadly “sin” and a most feared “crime,” Murphy
immediately responded. The traveling circus already sixty miles away
was ordered to stop. The chief of police and fifteen officers
subjectively selected forty of the 150 black circus workers as suspects.
After pressuring Tusken and Sullivan to pick the “guilty” men, after
they both said they didn’t know, six of these men were again
subjectively arrested and taken to the jail.
Paranoia, by word of mouth and newspapers, spread quickly through
Duluth. Details didn’t matter. Truth didn’t matter. An accusation of
rape had been made; therefore, someone had to be punished in their
minds. Even Dr. David Graham’s examination of Tusken and conclusion that
she had NOT been raped did not squelch the paranoia. People began
suggesting that the blacks who raped Tusken be lynched. Crowds formed
off and on throughout the day. Tension increased further after rumors
spread that Tusken had died from shock. The largest and most enduring
mob began assembling when a group of young men used their truck to drag a
long piece of rope with a noose on the ground while they drove around
town.
In virtually every similar situation, local, state, and national
officials, including religious leaders, overlooked lynch mobs and their
crimes and even encouraged them. In Duluth, the police provided a
surprising amount of protection for the accused blacks. Although
understaffed, underequipped, disorganized, and ordered not to use
firearms, police in Duluth actively tried to disband the mob by
reassuring them that justice would be served. As tensions escalated,
people broke into the police station and began tearing the building down
with bricks, chisels, and anything else they could retrieve. Police
used firehoses on the crowd. Undaunted, the crowd shouted and turned a
firehose on the police. Even local ministers were unsuccessful in
persuading the mob to disperse. Finally a few hours later, the crowd
seized complete control of the jail.
Following mock trials of no more than seconds, the extralegal mobs beat,
partially stripped, and hung Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson, and Isaac
McGhie on the light pole outside the police station at 11:30 p.m. and
left them overnight. Photographers took pictures of the dead bodies
alongside cheering crowds and made enduring postcards. The following
morning, people returned to collect any kind of souvenir possible from
the lynchings.
While all lynchings were tragic and generated responses, reactions
after the Duluth Lynchings were different and more extended. Previously
having thought that such extreme racism only existed in the South, the
nation reacted in horror upon seeing pictures and hearing about this
incident through media outlets. On June 16, the Minnesota National Guard
came to restore order. On June 17, the grand jury brought various
charges against some of the mob members: twenty-five for rioting and
twelve for first-degree murder. While only three were ultimately found
guilty, significantly for the time, three white men were found guilty,
though they were only convicted of rioting, with sentences of only about
a year.
Black males from the circus faced scrutiny again. Evidence still said
that Tusken had NOT actually been raped at all, but since such a charge
had been made, citizens of Duluth continued to believe it and had to
punish someone. The grand jury approved prosecution against seven
blacks. The NAACP provided three lawyers. In the end, a jury convicted
only Max Mason of rape and sentenced him to seven to thirty years in
prison. After serving less just less than five years, the court released
him and ordered him to never enter Minnesota again. For a time, rumors
spread in Duluth insinuating that all blacks would be lynched. Local
blacks responded by launching a chapter of the NAACP. Individuals
throughout the state pushed for antilynching legislation, which passed
on April 21, 1921. Although unsuccessful, attempts were also made to
codify a national antilynching bill. Nonetheless, approximately 20
percent of Duluth’s blacks moved elsewhere.
Over the decades, people suppressed the Duluth Lynchings from memory
and forbade discussion of them in schools. (I even know of one person
who grew up near Duluth a few years later who never heard about them.)
In a turn of events, on October 10, 2003, with thousands in attendance, the city dedicated the seven-foot-tall stone and bronze Clayton Jackson McGhie Memorial, located across the street from where these men were murdered over eighty years prior.
Although not as significant, a native of Duluth himself, Bob Dylan’s
“Desolation Row” (1965) serves as a partial reminder of this horrible
triple murder.
References/Further Reading:
Apel, Dora. “Memorialization and its Discontents: American’s First Lynching Memorial.” Mississippi Quarterly 61 (1/2): 217-35.
Fedo, Michael. The Lynchings in Duluth. St. Paul, MN: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2000.
Green, William D. “‘To Remove the Stain’: The Trial of the Duluth Lynchers.” Minnesota History 59 (1): 22-35.
Gustafson, Kristin L. “Constructions of Responsibility for Three 1920 Lynchings in Minnesota Newspapers.” Journalism History 34 (1): 42-53
Minnesota Historical Society. “Duluth Lynching Online Resources.”
And we must pay tribute to Billie Holiday
Originally posted to Culture, History, Politics, and More on Wed Jun 13, 2012 at 10:58 AM PDT.
Also republished by
History for Kossacks.
Tags
I was in Duluth last winter
(6+ / 0-)
I can't remember the circumstances but I was definitely informed
about this event in the context of the city's campaign for racial
sensitivity.
"We are normal and we want our freedom" - Bonzos
Yep. There's been some renewed attention
(2+ / 0-)
Real stupidity beats artificial intelligence every time. (Terry Pratchett)
Republished to History for Kossacks. nt
(2+ / 0-)
Homosexuality is found in over 450 species. Homophobia is found in only one. Which one seems unnatural now?
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