Tuesday marked the 101st anniversary of the Duluth lynchings, when Black men Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson and Isaac McGhie were killed by a white mob after being falsely accused of raping a white woman. No one was prosecuted for the murders of the three Black circus workers. On Tuesday, about 100 people gathered at the Duluth memorial that honors the victims. The 100-year commemoration was canceled last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. A year ago the Minnesota Board of Pardons granted the state's first posthumous pardon to Max Mason, a Black circus worker who was convicted by an all-white jury of the 1920 rape despite no evidence a crime had occurred. "This is 100 years overdue," Gov. Tim Walz said at the time.
(ALEX KORMANN • alex.kormann@startribune.com/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
(ALEX KORMANN • alex.kormann@startribune.com/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
Nabiha Chaudhry, a CJM Foundation scholarship recipient, listened to a speaker the Clayton Jackson McGhie Memorial on Tuesday during the ceremony to commemorate the 101st anniversary of the lynching of the three men. (ALEX KORMANN • alex.kormann@startribune.com/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
Cedric Smith lifted up his daughter, Tarajhi, in response to a speaker referencing the future of the community being about children, in front of the Clayton Jackson McGhie Memorial on Tuesday. (ALEX KORMANN • alex.kormann@startribune.com/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
(From Left) Billy Mahdi, David Craig and Shawn Lewis performed music in front of the Clayton Jackson McGhie Memorial on Tuesday during the ceremony to commemorate the 101st anniversary of the lynching of the three men. (ALEX KORMANN • alex.kormann@startribune.com/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
