September 2021 Edition - City of Alexandria

September 2021 Edition

As many of our readers know, the members of the Alexandria Community Remembrance Project have spent
the last two years reflecting on the role our community played in the accusing and lynching of Joseph McCoy
and Benjamin Thomas. In the spring and late summer of 2021, historic markers - written by the Soil and
Marker Committee - based on the detailed findings of the Research Committee - were unveiled on the City
corners where the lynchings occurred. Marking these sites and holding events are part of a process laid out
by the national Equal Justice Initiative that will culminate in Alexandria receiving and installing a pillar
memorializing McCoy and Thomas. This steel monument replicates the one bearing their names that is
among the 800 pillars memorializing documented lynchings at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in
Montgomery, Alabama.

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                                         Click the image to enlarge.

Our next steps will move us to a more intimate space where we will continue to reflect on and reconcile with
the past. EJI invites each community to gather soil from the lynching sites to physically embody and preserve
the memory of the lives lost. The Alexandria Soil and Marker Committee is currently meeting to consider
where to gather the earth that will memorialize McCoy and Thomas. Members of another committee are
working to make contact with McCoy and Thomas’ relatives to invite them to participate in the soil collection
ceremonies. Ceremonies will be held to collect the soil on the anniversaries of their deaths in April and
August of 2022.

The Pilgrimage Committee is actively planning for an Autumn 2022 trip to deliver the soil to the National
Memorial, and is encouraging Alexandria community members to participate in this important journey. Plans
include chartering busses for those who want to journey together, discounted hotel stays, curated museum
tours and a reception with guest speakers. In order to move the planning forward, ACRP invites those who
are considering traveling to Montgomery to take the survey below by October 1. For more information,
contact us at ACRP@alexandriava.gov. Many thanks for your ongoing interest and participation in this
important effort.

                                     Take the Pilgrimage Survey

In The News
Benjamin Thomas Remembrance Event

More than 300 people gathered at Market Square on the evening of August 8, 2021 to honor the life and
death of Benjamin Thomas who was lynched in 1899 at the corner of Fairfax and King. The ceremony
included the laying of a wreath in Thomas’ memory and the unveiling of a historic marker that brings voice to
his story. Over the course of three days from August 6-9, City Hall, Carlyle House and the George
Washington Masonic Memorial were draped in purple light, to remember and mourn this young victim of a
lynching.

Read more about the event and the marker text at ACRP’s website.

Watch the introduction of the historic marker on YouTube.

​

“Face Yourselves”

Alexandria Gazette, August 12, 2021 page 1

“New Historical Marker Honors Memory of Alexandria Lynching Victim Benjamin Thomas”

The Zebra, August 11, 2021

“My View: Lynchings in Alexandria”

Op-Ed by Audrey P. Davis, Director, Alexandria Black History Museum Alexandria Times, August 8,
2021.

“Stop To Remember Benjamin Thomas”

Op-Ed by Audrey P. Davis, Director, Alexandria Black History Museum Alexandria Gazette, August 9,
2021.

“City Plans Commemoration for Lynched Black Alexandrian”

ALXNOW, August 2, 2021

Montgomery County Lynching Memorial Project
The Montgomery County Lynching Memorial Project (MoCoLMP) invites you to join in memorializing two
young Black men who were lynched in Rockville: Mr. John Diggs-Dorsey in 1880 and Mr. Sidney Randolph in
1896. Both men were dragged from the county jail by vigilante mobs. By reckoning with the truth of the racial
violence that has shaped our communities, we seek to advance healing and reconciliation.

SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 26, 2021
Rockville, Maryland

Remembrance Pilgrimage Walk
(Registration limited to 100 people)
12–3 p.m.
To register: Remembrance Walk

Soil Collection Ceremony
(All are welcomed to attend)
4–5:30 p.m.
To register: Soil Collection Ceremony

Upcoming Committee Meetings

September 27, The Community Remembrance Pilgrimage Committee 7-8 p.m. Virtual meeting held via
Zoom.

September 30, The Community Remembrance Soil and Marker Committee 7-8 p.m. Virtual meeting
held via Zoom.

Committee Reports

The Soil and Marker Committee - Did not meet in August but will resume meeting this month to begin
working on creating a plan and ceremony for harvesting soil relevant to each lynching victim.

The Pilgrimage Committee - Met on August 23 and discussed the need to get more details about the
number of people interested in going on the pilgrimage in order to provide planning and logistical options to
the Steering Committee.The next step will be to review poll results and establish communications with those
interested in attending the pilgrimage.

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Joseph McCoy Benjamin Thomas.

                                            For more information

                                            Donate to the Project

                                    HistoricAlexandria@alexandriava.gov

The Alexandria Community Remembrance Project (ACRP) is a city-wide initiative dedicated to helping
Alexandria understand its history of racial terror hate crimes and to work toward creating a welcoming
community bound by equity and inclusion.

                                    Office of Historic Alexandria
                                    City of Alexandria, Virginia

                                                        

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