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Kym Young (left) of Superior brought her grandchildren Teja (left) and Antwan Salters to the Day of Remembrance ceremony at the Clayton Jackson McGhie Memorial in downtown Duluth on Friday so they could better understand and connect to their past. Young works with the Superior African Heritage Community. (Bob King / rking@duluthnews.com)

Much remains to be done, lynching memorial speakers say

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Much remains to be done, lynching memorial speakers say
Duluth Minnesota 424 W. First St. 55802

Almost 95 years after a mob lynched three innocent black men, a peaceful group assembled Friday at First Street and Second Avenue East.

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The annual Day of Remembrance honored the three men — Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson and Isaac McGhie — and speakers called on the attendees to help combat racism today.

Kym Young of Superior came with two of her grandchildren.

“If we don’t teach our young people about their history, then they’re not going to be able to make a good future for themselves and their children,” said Young, who works with the Superior African Heritage Community. “Part of our mission as elders and as community members is to see that our young people understand why this is important, why it’s still relevant today.”

While in Duluth as circus workers, the three men were falsely accused of raping a woman and were arrested. An angry mob of up to 10,000 people broke into the city jail on Superior Street on June 15, 1920, pulled the men outside and lynched them from a lamppost at First Street and Second Avenue West.

Clayton, Jackson and McGhie were buried in unmarked graves in Park Hill Cemetery, and the tragic event fell out of public memory. Decades later, an effort to locate and mark those graves in 1991 resulted in headstones being placed that read, “Deterred but not defeated.”

In 2003, Duluth erected the Clayton Jackson McGhie Memorial on the site of a former used car lot at First Street and Second Avenue East, with community members investing nearly $270,000 to erect the monument.

Many of the speakers Friday commented that work still needs to be done in Duluth. Young cited an incident at Denfeld High School this past school year in which students shared an image of a black classmate with a noose drawn on and the phrase, “Gotta hang ‘em all.”

Some incidents are not this obvious but remain just as troubling, said ChaQuana McEntyre, a local social worker. She spoke to the crowd on the racism people still face today such as profiling. All of this, she said, gives people of color a strong and hurtful message: “You are not wanted.”

Acknowledging Duluth’s troubling past and current problems, speakers called on attendees to work together to help fix the problem.

“How do we change the facts of our failure? We implement a plan of solutions. We start by building relationships,” McEntyre said.

Relationships are also the focus of the Duluth and Superior police departments, according to their respective police chiefs who both spoke at the memorial Friday.

Duluth Mayor Don Ness reflected on the past year that he said was particularly troubling nationwide.

“It was a pretty terrible year for our country in terms of race relations,” Ness said. “For those of us gathered here, I think we can take a look with frustration and discouragement and have that translate into determination and a reminder that we still have so much work yet to be done in our country.”

Duluth Police Chief Gordon Ramsay outlined community policing, where officers work to build relationships and trust within the area they police.

“We want to have relationships where we can talk,” Ramsay said. “I do not want to be part of the problem. We want to be the model for this country in improving race relations.”

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