Memorial service remembers two blacks lynched in 1896

Just south of 11th Street on Broadway Saturday, more than 40 people crowded into the grassy media to remember two black men who were lynched in the area 117 years ago.

“If we hide these things, people walk up and down these streets as they are doing right now unaware of what occurred here 117 years ago,” said Richard Gardiner, assistant professor of history at Columbus State University and guest speaker for the memorial service. “That should change. People should be aware.”

The service in downtown Columbus remembered Jesse Slayton and Will Miles who were lynched June 1, 1896. It was sponsored by the Columbus Georgia Black History Museum and Archives where Johnnie C. Warner Jr. is the director at 315 Eighth St. The museum wants to place a marker in the median to remember the moment in history.

As shoppers milled about the open markets on the east side of Broadway, Gardiner focused on why it is important not to ignore history - the good, bad and ugly. He pointed to an enlarged photo of the slain men hanging from a huge tree and said, “My friends, this right here is ugly.”

Some may state the problem will just go away if people forget about it. Gardiner said it would be a mistake to close your eyes to it. “This is not a scar on the city,” he said. “This is an opportunity to teach, to instruct the young people of this community, white, black and otherwise of where we came from and where we need to go,” he said.

Gardiner noted that sad events are remembered with markers all across the Chattahoochee Valley. Just across Dillingham Street Bridge, six Indians were hanged. At Fort Mitchell, a marker remembers the “Trail of Tears” in removing the Creek Indians and the Andersonville Prison is where almost 13,000 American prisoners of war died at the Confederate prison during the Civil War.

To help preserve history, Columbus attorney Derrell Dowdell presented Warner a check for $5,000. “Love will always conquer hate,” Dowdell told the crowd. “What I have seen from this perspective, different races, different genders is all about love. Black history is really world history.”

Dowdell said he wasn’t there as a lawyer to atone for a horrible event. He was there to support a museum that has benefited his two children. “They do this everyday, every month, every year,” he said of the museum preserving history.

At the end of the program, two doves were released, one for Slayton and Miles.

This story was originally published June 1, 2013 at 1:48 PM with the headline "Memorial service remembers two blacks lynched in 1896."