By Dan Sullivan
Catholic Herald

Memorial recalls lynching in 1920

DULUTH, Minn. -- On a corner downtown, that until recently was a parking lot, there is now a memorial, constructed to recall a tragic event in Duluth's history.

It was dedicated Oct. 10, 2003 as a way to remember three African-American men who were lynched by an angry mob.

Heidi Bakk-Hansen, co-founder of the Clayton, Jackson and McGhie monument committee, said she moved to the area 1995 and learned of the killing.

Before the memorial, Bakk-Hansen said, most African-Americans knew about the event but many others didn't.

"Its important to deal with the history in order to deal with the present," she said.

"In 1920 lots was going on. Lynchings were a regular occurrence across the country. It was a war against blacks to keep them quiet and keep them in their place."

The story behind the lynching is told in words on the memorial.

From it observers learn that the mob action took place June 15, 1920. Following the alleged rape of a young woman, Duluth police locked up a number of men who worked for a traveling circus. That evening thousands of Duluthians gathered outside the city's jail. The police were under orders not to shoot, and they obeyed.

"With timbers and rails as battering rams, the mob broke down the doors of the jail and staged a trial of the men," the monument reads. During the mock trial that followed, Ely Clayton, Elmer Jackson and Isaac McGhie were convicted.

The tragic event continued as the crowd dragged the young men about two blocks, viciously beat them and hung them from a light pole -- on the corner of First Street and Second Avenue East.

The memorial tells how some "brave people spoke out in protest, but they were few against thousands."

In the end, Clayton, Jackson and McGhie were beaten to their death.

Reports from Superior at the time said that the acting chief of police made a declaration, promising to "run all idle Negroes out of Superior and they're going to stay out." All of the blacks employed by a carnival in Superior were fired and told to leave the city.

Among the quotes included on the display is one from Albert Einstein, "The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing."

Although the memorial was dedicated over a year ago, Bakk-Hansen said the committee is not sitting idle.

"We're now looking to make educational tools available to learn more about the lynching," she said.

"It's important because every community has to deal with racism. In order to deal with it we have to look at our own history. "

According to Bakk-Hansen, Duluth's Clayton, Jackson and McGhie monument is the first lynching memorial constructed within a city proper in the entire nation.

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© Superior Catholic Herald, 2004