All photography provided by LCRP participants.

Since 2017, the Lafayette Community Remembrance Project (LCRP) has engaged in many memorialization projects and public events. Here’s the timeline of our work. 

Our History

This work locally has grown out of a multiyear process that began through a “Welcome Table” group facilitated by the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation (now know as The Alluvial Collective), which focuses on dialogue and equity-building around issues of race and systems of oppression. After meeting monthly for more than two years, in April 2017, this interracial group of Oxford community members hosted a presentation by Kyleen Burke, a law student from Northeastern University School of Law’s Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project. As part of her studies, she compiled significant research on the lynching of Elwood Higginbotham (now Higginbottom), the last known victim of lynching in Lafayette County, killed by a white mob in 1935.

Ms. Burke came to Oxford for additional research and made a presentation on Mr. Higginbottom, hosted at the Winter Institute and open to the public. It was well attended and sparked conversation about how we as a community might learn more about this troubling history in our county, to address the injustices of the past in order to strengthen our community and move forward.

This was the launching of the local movement, which grew rather organically over the following months and continues today.

timeline

2017

May 24, 2017: First public presentation by Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project researcher Kyleen Burke on the lynching of Elwood Higginbottom, hosted by April Grayson of the Winter Institute.

September 16, 2017: Based on Kyleen Burke’s research, my colleague Francesca Lovelady and I located two important sites of memory: the general site of the lynching, and the rural cemetery believed to be the site of Elwood Higginbottom’s unmarked grave. We hosted several members of the Higginbottom family in Oxford and showed them sites associated with Elwood Higginbottom and his death, including the two sites identified. This began a deep and ongoing relationship with the Higginbottom family, including Rev. EW Higginbottom, the son who was 4 at the time of his father’s lynching in 1935.

September 2017: Public presentation by Dr. Elizabeth Payne, UM professor of history, on the lynching of LQ Ivy, on the border of Lafayette and Union counties.

November 7, 2017: Open meeting with EJI representatives Kiara Boone and Evan Milligan in Oxford.

December 2017 and January 2018: Public meetings about the memorialization movement.

2018

January thru April 2018: Fundraising for Higginbottom family travel expenses and a GoFundMe after Rev. Higginbottom and his daughter’s family lost their home in a fire.

February 2018: April Grayson presented to a local community gathering hosted by the Chamber of Commerce.

March 2018: Community dialogue circle facilitated by April Grayson, hosted by the Winter Institute.

March 24, 2018: Soil collection ceremony for Elwood Higginbottom, including about a dozen Higginbottom family members. We sent the soil to the collection at EJI’s Legacy Museum in Montgomery.

April 26-27, 2018: We traveled with several members of the Higginbottom family to the Peace & Justice Summit and memorial and museum openings in Montgomery, where they were able to see the jar of soil on display and the memorial with Elwood Higginbottom’s name. May/June 2018: Meetings with local officials and city staff about the project and placement of a marker on city property at “the Three-Way,” a busy location intersection near the site of the lynching.

June-July 2018: We submitted the Elwood Higginbottom marker text to EJI, and they approved language by Dr. Darren Grem.

August 7, 2018: April Grayson and Alonzo Hilliard presented at a public meeting of the Oxford Board of Aldermen, which unanimously approved use of city property at the Three-Way location.

August 28, 2018: General public informational meeting at Tallahatchie-Oxford Missionary Baptist Association (T.O.M.B.) in Oxford, including release of essay contest guidelines for local high school students. We heard from family members of another victim, Lawson Patton, through this meeting.

October 27, 2018: Elwood Higginbottom marker unveiling and dedication ceremony, attended by a multiracial group of 500 people, including about 45 Higginbottom family members.

2019

2019: Planning for an additional county marker and the memorial pillar from EJI.

April 12, 2019: Meeting with two of five Lafayette County Board of Supervisors members regarding support for a new marker about all seven documented victims of lynching on the courthouse lawn in Oxford MS.

June 15, 2019: Oxford’s Juneteenth celebration, where LCRP had a booth and partnered with University of Mississippi faculty in arts-related disciplines to develop creative responses to local history and contemporary race relations. Our booth provided refreshments and a site for reflection and community visioning.

September 16, 2019: Presentation to the Board of Supervisors meeting requesting approval of the marker for the courthouse lawn. We received approval by a 4-1 vote, setting in motion the application to the Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH).

2020

Spring 2020: We heard from a family member of lynching victim William Steen, and he joined our steering committee.

July 2020: We received notification of formal approval of the marker by MDAH and reached out to the Board of Supervisors for planning.

November 13, 2020: Soil collection ceremony in memory of lynching victim William McGregory, on the 130th anniversary of the lynching, at Orwood MS.

December 7, 2020: After phone calls indicating the Board of Supervisors would not necessarily support the marker, we presented at the BOS meeting to ask for formal sign off on the MDAH marker. They indicated they would not approve unless we removed one of the names from the marker but were open to another conversation.

December 18, 2020: LCRP hosted a Zoom call with two of the Supervisors and four Lafayette Community Remembrance Project steering committee members (Lydia Koltai, Alonzo Hilliard, Rev. Duncan Gray, April Grayson), using a circle dialogue approach, and we came to an agreement that they would approve the marker, including the name of the man they originally wanted removed.

2021

January 19, 2021: Presentation to the Board of Supervisors for formal approval, with a vote in favor of 5-0.

March 5, 2021: April Grayson and Delois Higginbottom Wright presented about the project and the Higginbottom family story to a graduate art class at Western Carolina University.

May 8, 2021: Soil collection ceremony in memory of lynching victim William Steen, lynched in 1893, near Paris MS.

June 19, 2021: Oxford’s Juneteenth celebration, where LCRP had a booth and provided refreshments and dialogue.

September 17, 2021: A small group of our steering committee gathered to formally dedicate the new marker on the Lafayette County courthouse lawn. Video here: https://fb.watch/85WVrEOnQu/ We had originally planned a large, public, outdoor unveiling event for the marker on the courthouse lawn, using safe Covid public health protocols, featuring speakers, music, and descendants of lynching victims. However, with the rise of the Delta variant in our state and the stress on our local healthcare systems, we decided to postpone that from September 25 to early 2022.

2022

February 12, 2022: Soil collection ceremony in memory of lynching victim William Chandler, lynched in 1895, at Abbeville MS.

March 10, 2022: LCRP hosted a meeting with a group of young people from Georgetown University that is focused on the history of enslavement at Georgetown and connecting with descendants of those who were enslaved. One of the group's leaders is the granddaughter of LCRP steering committee member Effie Burt.

April 2, 2022: LCRP hosted a large, public, outdoor unveiling event on the Oxford Square for the new marker on the courthouse lawn, featuring speakers, music, and descendants of lynching victims. Later that day, we dedicated a city park bench in memory of Rev. E.W. Higginbottom, son of Elwood Higginbottom.

June 2022: Two community events, including Linen on the Lawn and Oxford’s Juneteenth celebration. At Juneteenth, LCRP had a booth, provided refreshments, gave away children’s books about Juneteenth, and had a community oral history booth.

Late 2022: We worked with a strategic planning facilitator to undertake a formal strategic planning process.

2023

January 17, 2023: In partnership with the Arc Benders community group, LCRP led a dialogue event featuring clips from the local documentary, "Sites of Resistance and Sites of Healing" (produced by LCRP co-convener Castel Sweet and member Antonio Tarrell, with supporter Mike Fagans) at the First Regional Library in Oxford. The evening explored what memorialization means to individuals and communities and how it can be an important tool for healing and community building.

March 4, 2023: Antiracism and Community-Based Memory Conference, Martin University, Indianapolis IN.

March 25, 2023: LCRP co-convener Castel Sweet led a university-community trip to the EJI museum and memorial in Montgomery AL, with several LCRP steering committee members. There, LCRP representatives were able to see the duplicate Lafayette County markers at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice.

June 17, 2023: Oxford’s Juneteenth celebration, where LCRP had a booth, provided refreshments, and gave away children’s books about Juneteenth.

November 8-10, 2023: Castel Sweet represents LCRP at E Pluribus Unum’s gathering of memorialization practitioners in Montgomery, AL, at EJI sites.

Ongoing: oral history project