On March 12, 2024, Fayetteville, Georgia, witnessed a profound moment of historical reckoning as dozens of community members, local officials, and descendants gathered outside the historic county courthouse to dedicate a new historical marker. This poignant ceremony formally recognized and memorialized the victims of racial terror lynchings in Fayette County, bringing a long-silenced chapter of the region’s past into public consciousness. The marker, centrally located in Fayetteville, approximately 20 miles south of Atlanta, is the culmination of years of dedicated research, community engagement, and collaborative efforts led by the Fayette County Community Remembrance Project (FCCRP) in partnership with the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI).
A Ceremony of Remembrance and Commitment
The dedication ceremony was not merely an unveiling but a solemn assembly focused on remembrance, accountability, and the arduous journey toward community healing. Coalition co-chairs Janice Bryant and Tamika Smith commenced the proceedings, emphasizing the critical importance of acknowledging this painful history as a foundational step toward genuine reconciliation. They highlighted the FCCRP’s foundational work since its inception in 2021, which has actively involved the community in confronting its legacy of racial terror through poignant soil collection ceremonies from documented lynching sites. This intimate act of collecting soil, imbued with the memory of suffering and injustice, serves as a tangible link to the past, allowing communities to physically engage with their history.
Ms. Bryant articulated the profound purpose of the gathering, stating, "Today, we gather not only to unveil a marker, but to remember lives that were taken, acknowledge a painful chapter in our past, and confirm a commitment to truth, justice, and healing." Her words resonated with the attendees, underscoring the collective resolve to ensure that these atrocities are neither forgotten nor repeated. The FCCRP’s initiatives are part of a broader national network of remembrance projects, all supported by EJI, aiming to confront similar histories across the United States.
The Rev. Edward Johnson, Fayetteville’s first Black mayor, offered an opening prayer that invoked a spirit of gratitude for the opportunity to reflect on the past while simultaneously striving for a more just and unified future. He stressed the virtues of fellowship, compassion, and collective responsibility as indispensable elements in forging stronger, more equitable communities. His presence and remarks symbolized a significant shift in local leadership’s willingness to openly address historical injustices.
County Commissioner Charles Rousseau further elaborated on the transformative power of publicly memorializing racial terror lynchings. These acts of violence were historically designed to intimidate, silence, and subjugate entire Black communities. Breaking that imposed silence, he argued, is an essential step toward restoring dignity to the victims and their families, whose stories were suppressed for generations. "[R]emembering is not about dwelling in the past," Mr. Rousseau clarified, "It is about telling the truth about the past, so that our future can be different. For generations many stories like these were ignored, minimized, or left unspoken." His statement underscored the didactic function of such markers, serving as educational tools that illuminate forgotten truths and inform future societal progress.
The Fayette County Community Remembrance Project: Unearthing Hidden Histories
The FCCRP’s journey began in 2021 with a clear mission: to engage the local community in a comprehensive process of historical investigation, remembrance, and reconciliation regarding racial terror lynchings. Their work is meticulously coordinated with EJI, a non-profit organization dedicated to challenging racial injustice, ending mass incarceration, and protecting basic human rights for the most vulnerable people in American society. EJI’s Community Remembrance Project is a cornerstone of its broader efforts, connecting with local coalitions across the country to document histories of racial terror, collect soil from lynching sites, and install historical markers to encourage education, remembrance, and reconciliation.
Jennifer Harris, EJI Senior Project Manager, emphasized the critical importance of this work, noting that confronting these histories is not about assigning blame to current generations but about understanding the systemic roots of racial inequality that continue to impact society. In recognition of the FCCRP’s unwavering dedication and profound impact, Ms. Harris announced a significant honor: "To honor [FCCRC], a duplicate marker will be placed at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery." This national recognition ensures that Fayette County’s commitment to truth and justice will be acknowledged on a global stage, informing visitors from around the world about the local efforts to advance historical understanding and foster healing.
Lynching in Fayette County: A Detailed Chronology of Terror
Between 1875 and 1919, a period marked by the violent backlash against Reconstruction and the entrenchment of Jim Crow laws, white mobs perpetrated the lynching of at least seven Black individuals in Fayette County. These acts of racial terror were not random but calculated demonstrations of power intended to enforce white supremacy and maintain a rigid racial hierarchy. The victims’ stories, once buried in silence, are now etched in stone, serving as a permanent testament to the brutal realities of that era.
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October 17, 1875 – Clarke Edmundson: Edmundson was abducted from a local jail and hanged in Fayetteville. His perceived offense was being in an interracial relationship, a profound transgression of the era’s strict racial codes designed to maintain social segregation and purity. His lynching exemplifies how racial terror was often deployed to punish any perceived challenge to white social dominance, even in personal relationships.
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July 10, 1890 – Harrison Hastings and Anderson Williams: These two Black men were shot to death by a mob at Starr’s Mill following an altercation during a fish fry. The swift, violent mob justice, bypassing any legal process, was characteristic of the period. While a white man was charged with the unlawful killing of Mr. Hastings, he was never arrested, illustrating the systemic failure of law enforcement to protect Black lives and hold white perpetrators accountable.
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August 11, 1893 – Dug Hazleton: Hazleton was lynched near Line Creek after a white woman reported an assault. In this era, accusations of sexual impropriety against Black men, often baseless or exaggerated, served as a common pretext for lynchings. EJI’s research indicates that almost 25% of lynchings were fueled by such allegations, highlighting how race-based suspicion disproportionately targeted Black men, regardless of evidence.
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May 20, 1899 – Thomas Linton: Masked "whitecaps"—a term often used for Ku Klux Klan members or similar vigilante groups—broke into Linton’s home and shot him to death. This act demonstrates the clandestine, yet terrifyingly effective, nature of racial terrorism, where mobs could operate with impunity, often under the cover of darkness, to eliminate perceived threats to white authority.
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February 17, 1918 – Bud Crosby: Crosby was lynched by a mob near present-day Peachtree City after being accused of attempted robbery and kidnapping. This incident occurred amidst a period of escalating racial tensions and violence, even as the nation was engaged in World War I, highlighting the deep-seated domestic racial strife.
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July 31, 1919 – Charles Kelly: A 26-year-old Black World War I veteran, Kelly was lynched by a white family in Woolsey just days after returning home from service. His murder stemmed from a white boy’s accusation that Kelly had not moved his car out of the road quickly enough to allow him to pass—a perceived violation of prevailing social norms that dictated Black deference to whites. This particular lynching occurred during the "Red Summer" of 1919, a period marked by widespread racial violence across the United States, often targeting returning Black veterans who were seen as a threat to the established racial order due to their military service and expectations of equal treatment.
In every documented case of these seven lynchings, no one was ever held accountable. This pervasive lack of justice underscores the systemic nature of racial terror, where the legal system itself often either sanctioned or passively enabled these brutal acts.
Lynching in America: A National Scourge
The horrific events in Fayette County were not isolated incidents but were symptomatic of a widespread campaign of racial terror that swept across the United States, particularly in the South, for nearly a century. EJI’s exhaustive research reveals that more than 6,500 Black people were killed in racial terror lynchings between 1865 and 1950. This era, following the Civil War and the promise of Reconstruction, saw many white people vehemently oppose equal rights and opportunities for Black Americans. Lynching emerged as the most public, notorious, and effective form of racial terrorism, designed to enforce white supremacy and instill pervasive fear within Black communities.
During this period, deep racial hostility permeated Southern society, burdening Black people with a presumption of guilt. This presumption often served to focus suspicion on Black communities after a crime was discovered, regardless of whether any evidence supported such suspicion. Race, rather than the alleged offense, most often played a key role in the lynching of Black people. These were not simply acts of mob violence but instruments of social control, economic subjugation, and political disempowerment.
Public spectacle lynchings were carefully orchestrated events intended to maintain white supremacy and terrorize the Black community into submission. Lynch mobs targeted and attacked Black people in public spaces and their homes, often allowing the victim to be displayed for hours, preventing families from claiming their loved ones. This deliberate public display of violence served to send a chilling message to the entire Black community, reinforcing racial hierarchy through the constant threat of brutal violence. Local law enforcement was frequently indifferent or outright complicit, often failing to protect Black residents from these attacks and allowing white mobs to employ violence and murder without fear of legal repercussions. This systemic complicity ensured that justice remained elusive for the vast majority of victims and their families.
While many racial terror lynchings were not documented and remain unknown, the seven victims killed by white mobs in Fayette County are part of a grim statistic: more than 715 Black victims killed in Georgia alone.
The Equal Justice Initiative’s Community Remembrance Project: A Path to Truth and Reconciliation
The Community Remembrance Project (CRP) is a cornerstone of EJI’s comprehensive campaign to acknowledge and memorialize the victims of lynching. The project operates on three key pillars: collecting soil from lynching sites, erecting historical markers, and developing the Legacy Sites in Montgomery, Alabama—namely, the National Memorial for Peace and Justice and the Legacy Museum.
EJI’s philosophy is rooted in the belief that confronting the truth of racial violence is a prerequisite for healing and reconciliation. By actively engaging communities in this process, EJI aims to foster a necessary conversation that addresses the enduring legacy of racial injustice. The act of collecting soil is deeply symbolic, transforming the ground where terror occurred into a sacred space of remembrance. The historical markers serve as educational tools, ensuring that the historical truth is publicly accessible and integrated into the collective memory of the community. The National Memorial for Peace and Justice, often referred to as the national lynching memorial, stands as a powerful testament to the thousands of known and unknown victims, providing a national space for reflection and remembrance.
The dedication of the Fayette County marker is thus more than a local event; it is a vital contribution to a national movement dedicated to truth-telling, justice, and healing. It acknowledges the specific suffering within Fayette County while connecting it to the broader narrative of racial terror in America.
Implications for Community Healing and Future Generations
The installation of this historical marker in Fayetteville carries profound implications for community healing and the education of future generations. By publicly acknowledging the victims of racial terror lynchings, Fayette County takes a significant step towards dismantling historical amnesia and confronting the painful truths that have long shaped its social fabric. This public reckoning can foster a deeper understanding of the roots of racial inequality and inform ongoing efforts to promote justice, equity, and human dignity.
For the descendants of the victims, this marker offers a measure of recognition and validation that has been denied for over a century. It restores dignity to their ancestors and provides a tangible symbol that their stories matter and will no longer be silenced. For the broader community, it serves as a powerful educational tool, encouraging reflection on the destructive consequences of racial hatred and the importance of civic courage in challenging injustice.
The Fayette County marker joins a growing number of similar memorials across the nation, each contributing to a collective effort to build a more just and compassionate society. By remembering the past, Fayetteville aims not to dwell in it, but to learn from it, ensuring that the injustices of yesterday pave the way for a more equitable and inclusive future. This dedication represents a vital step in a long and complex journey towards genuine reconciliation, demonstrating a commitment to truth that will resonate for generations to come.
