Clayton Jackson McGhie Posts

Duluth history used to illustrate white privilege on Netflix show

Jan 20, 2022 No Comments

In the new Netflix series Colin in Black & White, former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick serves as the narrator for his own story of growing up in California’s Central Valley with white adoptive parents. At the very beginning of the third episode, a modified version of a photograph taken at the 1920 lynching of Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson, and Isaac McGhie in Duluth is used as part of a montage explaining the concept of white privilege.

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History ,

The Ethel Ray Nance Story

Jun 17, 2021 No Comments

Karen Nance — author, public speaker and attorney — is the granddaughter of civil rights activist Ethel Ray Nance, who was part of one of the few biracial families in Duluth in 1920. The family lived just four blocks from the site of the 1920 lynchings of Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson and Isaac McGhie.

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Videos ,

Sean Hill: “A Photograph Taken in Duluth”

Sep 24, 2020 No Comments

Ten years ago this month, poet Sean Hill was featured in Missouri Review‘s “Poem of the Week” series with a piece about the Duluth lynchings. Click the graphic above to read to the poem.


Art ,

A Lynching in the Family

Aug 05, 2020 No Comments

The 1920 Duluth lynchings is the subject of a series of three short videos released by PBS-TV’s Independent Lens. The videos share the title A Lynching in the Family. Part one, above, is subtitled “Accuser, Instigator, Victim.”

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Videos

Duluth Lynchings Legacy

Jun 17, 2020 No Comments

The Minnesota Historical Society is commemorating the 100th anniversary of the 1920 Duluth lynchings with a week of remembrance and conversations about its legacy. A collection of resources is available at mnhs.org/duluthlynchings. Below are short video commentaries offering modern perspectives on the past and thoughts about the present and future.
 

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History, Videos ,

I Can’t Breathe: A CJM Memorial Documentary

Jun 15, 2020 No Comments

This documentary by DanSan Creatives honors the victims of the 1920 Duluth lynchings with modern perspectives on police brutality and the murder of George Floyd.

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Videos

Max Mason pardoned in century-old rape case

Jun 12, 2020 No Comments

The Minnesota Board of Pardons has approved the posthumous pardon of Max Mason, a circus worker convicted of raping Irene Tusken in 1920. The incident in Duluth is better known for the fates of three others accused: Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson and Isaac McGhie, all three victims of a lynch mob.

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News and Current Affairs

Michael Fedo in Smithsonian magazine

Jun 10, 2020 No Comments

Former Duluthian Michael Fedo was interviewed about the anniversary of the lynchings in Duluth for an article in Smithsonian, the journal published by the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

Over the years, the horror of June 15, 1920, when three black men were lynched by a white mob in Duluth, faded away behind a “collective amnesia,” says author Michael Fedo. Faded away, at least, in the memories of Duluth’s white community.

In the 1970s, when Fedo began researching what would become The Lynchings in Duluth, the first detailed accounting of the night’s events, he met resistance from witnesses who were still alive. “All of them said, gee, why are you dredging this up again? All of them except the African American community in Duluth. It was part of their oral history, and all of those families knew of this event,” Fedo recalls.

More can be found at smithsonianmag.com.


News and Current Affairs , ,

Selective Focus: Community Mural at the CJM Memorial

Jun 09, 2020 No Comments

Visual artist Moira Villiard organized a mural project at the Clayton Jackson McGhie Memorial as part of a day of creative expression on Monday, June 8. People were invited to add to the images she created of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and a raised fist. The activities also included interviews of black, indigenous and people of color on the topic of police brutality. The interviews will be used in a documentary produced by DanSan Creatives. June 15 marks 100 years since the lynching of Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson and Issac McGhie in downtown Duluth for a crime they didn’t commit.

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Art, History , ,

Hundred-year commemoration of Duluth lynching could see 10,000-person rally

Sep 22, 2019 No Comments

It’s been nearly 100 years since Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson and Isaac McGhie were falsely accused, taken by force from the old Duluth jail, and lynched by an estimated 10,000 community members at the intersection where the Clayton Jackson McGhie Memorial now stands.

On June 15, 2020, the community will commemorate those three men and continue to work toward a mission of fostering peace, racial equity and growth. Organizers are asking for more than 10,000 community members and visitors to attend an event at the intersection of the memorial and in the surrounding streets to listen to keynote speaker Bryan Stevenson, founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, a human rights organization in Montgomery, Ala.


News and Current Affairs

Facing lynchings from Duluth to Montgomery

May 31, 2018 No Comments

From MPR News: Two guys named Carl walked onto a bus last month in Duluth, one black, one white. One of them was Carl Crawford, the other was Carl Huber. Together, they traveled to Alabama to visit the new memorial to the victims of lynching, and they became friends on the journey. After they returned, they talked together about what the trip meant to them.

Video and photos by Evan Frost.


Videos

Carla Stetson addressing design/construction of CJM Memorial

Nov 12, 2017 No Comments

I’m cleaning out my hard drive in preparation for a sabbatical. So here are some videos of Carla Stetson, then a Duluth artist, talking to my writing class. She’s addressing the process of designing and constructing the Clayton Jackson McGhie Memorial.

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Videos

KUWS Final Edition episode on the CJMM Memorial

Sep 11, 2017 No Comments

I found the CD that Mike Simonson gave me and uploaded it to SoundCloud. It’s a half-hour segment titled “Teaching History, Literacy and Tolerance: The Clayton Jackson McGhie Memorial in Our Schools.” Panelists are Henry Banks, Catherine Nachbar, David Beard, Gail Schoenfelder and Perry Kennedy. Moderators are Jennifer and Mike Simonson.


History ,

The Ballad of Clayton, Jackson and McGhie

Jun 15, 2017 No Comments

Local musician Bill Nash produced this music video in May, recalling the June 15, 1920 lynching of Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson and Isaac McGhie.

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History, Music, Videos

CJMM & Wing Young Huie

Apr 06, 2013 1 Comment

Kate and I spent the evening at Northland Country Club for the Clayton Jackson McGhie Memorial fundraising event. 

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