The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
DeKalb NAACP finishes lynching memorial project Ceremony caps 2-year effort to document deaths of 4 Black men.
The Dekalb County NAACP capped off a two-year effort to memorialize and honor lynching victims whose deaths took place in the county.
The organization’s Remembrance Project erected markers throughout the county to document the deaths of four Black men. Three lynchings took place more than a century ago, while the most recent one happened in the mid-1940s.
The Dekalb NAACP held a ceremony Thursday night to wrap up the program, mourn the victims and preach the importance of remembering what took place in the county less than a century ago.
“They were fathers, brothers, husbands, sons, workers. They were American. They were human beings,” said Rev. Steven Dial Sr. of Rainbow Park Baptist Church during a Thursday night ceremony. “This is an effort to reaffirm their humanity, their dignity, their significance.”
A coalition of Dekalb NAACP members, elected officials, students and community members helped place markers in Lithonia and North Druid Hills to honor the four lynching victims.
Lithonia’s plaque details the deaths of Reuben Hudson and two unidentified Black men, who were tortured and lynched by white mobs during the late 1800s. The North Druidhillssign documents the death of Porter Turner, who was found stabbed to death in 1945. The next year, members of the Ku Klux Klan boasted about killing Turner, but no one was ever arrested in connection with the homicide.
A third marker was placed in Decatur Square outside the county courthouse to commemorate the arrest, “chain gang” sentencing and eventual release of Martin Luther King Jr. — all of which took place in Decatur more than 60 years ago. It was placed feet away from where a Confederate obelisk used to stand for more than a century. It was removed last summer.
“We southerners, Black and white, must be cognizant of our unique vulnerability to racially divisive appeals wrapped in the veneer of history and heritage,” Dekalb CEO Michael Thurmond said during the ceremony. “Removing the Lost Cause obelisk from the old courthouse and today’s dedication are steps in the right direction.”
The MLK sign, which was erected by a group of Decatur High School student activists, was folded into the Remembrance Project.
NAACP Dekalb committee chairman Albert Fields said during the ceremony that the marker serves as a reminder that Black men, including MLK, were often ignored by the judicial system.
“We placed a marker there at the courthouse to remind everybody as they walk through that door that justice (was) denied for these four victims that we know of and for all the victims unknown,” Fields said.
He also tied those events to today, mentioning how Ahmaud Arbery, an unarmed 25-year-old Black man, was chased, shot and killed by three white men last year in Glynn County. A murder trial for the three suspects is scheduled to begin Oct. 18.
The ceremony,which included a candle lighting for the four lynching victims, was capped off with a tree planting. Dekalb NAACP President Teresa Hardy said the work of the Remembrance Project’s coalition is not over. She told The Atlanta Journal-constitution they’re seeking approval from the Equal Justice Initiative to place a memorial statue of Rep. John Lewis outside
the Dekalb Courthouse. “The ultimate goal is not to be silent about the true history of America and Black people,” she said.