A soil collection ceremony to honor the life of a Gwinnett County lynching victim will be held on Juneteenth.
The Lawrenceville ceremony, at 10 a.m. June 19, will take place at the corner of West Pike Street and Perry Street at the city’s downtown Square.
It’s the site where Charles Hale was lynched in 1911. Hale, a Black man in his mid-30s, was killed after he was pulled out of the city jail.
An image of his lynching was printed on a postcard.
Led by the Gwinnett Remembrance Coalition Project, with the support of the Gwinnett Historical Restoration and Preservation Board, Lawrenceville and the county, the soil collection is part of a national effort to memorialize lynching victims.
Local leaders hope it will be an early step as Gwinnett County and the rest of the country continue to grapple with past racial violence.
“If we’re going to look at the history of Gwinnett, we need to look at the complete history, not just a whitewashed version,” said Curtis Clemons, vice chairman of the steering committee for the Remembrance project. “We had a dark past and everything wasn’t above board. ... Hopefully at the end, justice and reconciliation will prevail.”
The soil collection is being done in cooperation with the Equal Justice Initiative, a group that runs the Legacy Museum, near the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Ala.
They work to erect public markers to memorialize lynching victims; dirt from the Square will be housed at the museum.
Hale’s is one of three known Gwinnett County lynchings, though the Gwinnett Remembrance Coalition is researching other possible incidents.
The event is scheduled to last an hour and a half and it’s suggested attendees bring chairs. For more information on the event, email gwinnettremembranceproject@gmail.com.
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