Lawrenceville, Georgia is acknowledging its racist past by honoring one of its own, who was publicly lynched 110 years ago, with a new historical marker in its town square at the corner of Pike Street and Perry Street.
Charles Hale, who was black, called Lawrenceville, an Atlanta suburb, in 1911 along with his wife Willie and daughter. Hale was 36 when he was accused of assaulting a white woman on April 7 and was sent to jail, according to the Herald newspaper, which reported on the horrifying events at the time.
On April 8, a white mob of at least 200 men later stormed the Lawrenceville Jail, determined to find Hale and impose their own form of punishment, a lynching.
“In the middle of the night, a white mob allegedly held Sheriff Gardner and his men at gunpoint and broke Mr Hale out of jail. We know they took him to this place in downtown Lawrenceville, Georgia and hung him from a telegram pole,” Lawrenceville pastor Elijah Collins said of Hale.
After Hale’s body was hanged, his mutilated body served as an attraction for whites in the community, who came to Lawrenceville Square and took photos with Hale in the background.
As if hanging wasn’t bad enough, a sign was attached to Hale’s body that read, “Please don’t wake him up,” and that phrase confused his niece, Inger Williams, for some time.
“What concerned me the most is the sign that says ‘Please don’t wake him. As I thought about it and tried to figure out why you did it, I realized I couldn’t figure it out because it was written by someone who lived in a place of hate and racism,” Williams said.
Williams spoke candidly about her late uncle at a dedication ceremony for the historical marker. She says growing up, she was close to her aunt Willie, who was only 20 when her husband was publicly executed. Williams says her aunt kept details about what happened to her uncle secret.
“My aunt Willie Williams Hale, she taught me how to be a woman, she gave me many beautiful gifts, her home was my home and as a child she protected me from the details [Hale’s] terrible death,” Williams said.
The story goes on
A small crowd witnessed the unveiling of the historical marker in Lawrenceville Square, which stands on the same spot where Hale was hanged.
During the Jim Crow South of the 1860s and 1960s, blatant racism and threats of lynching were real concerns for African Americans. According to the Equal Justice Initiative, Charles Hale was just one of 4,084 documented lynchings in the US South between 1877 and 1950.
The Gwinnett Remembrance Coalition helped advance the project to create Hale’s historic landmark. The group focuses on commemorating the local victims of racial terror lynchings and educating the community about their racist past.
Though Hale didn’t make it past 36, Williams says his wife lived to 70 and his family lived a full life, Hale never got the chance to do it himself. “His family, nieces, nephews, brothers-in-law and friends continued to live as healthy, independent, educated, godly citizens like me,” she said.
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