Lynching survivor tells tale of hatred

"Silence gives consent."\nThese were the words of James Cameron, a survivor of a 1930 racial lynching in Marion, Ind. \nCameron spoke Thursday to an auditorium filled with IU students and faculty in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.\nEach year CommUNITY Educators (CUES) coordinate programs in celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. This year three CUES had a big dream. They collaborated with people and raised funds from dozens of sponsors to bring Cameron to IU.\nThe dream began with Foster CUE Jaret Fishman, who learned of Cameron's story while enrolled in Professor James Madison's "American History II" class. \n"During class, Madison began to tell the story of three black men accused of the murder of a white man and the rape of his white girlfriend in Marion, Ind. in 1930," Fishman said. "Two of the three were brutally killed and hung from a tree in the court house lawn. James Cameron was to be the third, but he survived."\nCameron's story has also been told other places. \n"Cameron has been the inspiration for an HBO movie, a PBS special and numerous other things," Melissa Lounsberry, McNutt Quad CUE, said. Cameron held a captive audience during his speech -- a story Madison said he hopes will inspire students.\n"I hope that those in his audience can see the 'realness' of his story and that this actually happened in Indiana during the 20th century," Madison said. "I hope that they can see Mr. Cameron is not only a survivor, but he is a prophet with a message." \nCameron began his speech with a tribute to King. \n"On April 14, 1968, we lost a man who was dear to all people of good will," Cameron said. "Dr. King was more than a man, he was an age. He had the weakness of a lamb and the wrath of a hero."\nCameron's story began in 1930, he said. \n"Hate is a disease," he said, "and in 1930 I became sick with hatred." \nCameron was with his two friends, Abe Smith and Tommy Shep, when his friends decided to rob someone they saw sitting in a parked car. Shep gave Cameron a gun, Cameron said, and Cameron opened the door to the car. What he saw stunned him, he said.\n"That white man, in that car, was my friend." Cameron said. "I shined his shoes, sometimes, and he always asked me about my family." \nCameron said he gave the gun back to his friends and ran. He said he heard the gunshots as he ran, but he didn't stop until he reached his home. Police later came to take him away. A white man was dead and his white girlfriend had been raped, they said.\nAfter questioning at the station, the police took Cameron to jail, he said. \n"I will never forget my mother pleading and crying for them to take her instead of me," Cameron said. "That's just not something you forget." \nThe three boys were put into separate cells until an angry mob, led by the Ku Klux Klan, came to get them, one by one. He was third, and as he was taken to the tree where his friends had met their deaths, Cameron said he begged people he knew for help, but they said nothing. \nFinally, Cameron said he stood with death on both sides of him as they put the noose around his neck.\n"At that moment I said 'Lord forgive me my sins' and I felt this calm wash over me," Cameron said. "It had been a miracle up until that point that I had not been beaten. Then came the next miracle."\nAs Cameron stood there waiting for his death, he said he heard a voice. \n"(It said) 'Take this boy back. He had nothing to do with this,'" Cameron said. "I heard this voice, but no one else did. Nevertheless, the crowd grew quiet and they released me."\nAfter he was released the sheriff said he would take him somewhere that he would be safe, and he did. Cameron was in jail for years until Paul V. McNutt, the man for whom McNutt Quad is named, became governor and pardoned him.\nFishman said it is important that people remember the real reason for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. \n"By hearing the story of the Marion lynching and the experiences of James Cameron, we hope that people will be more apt to observe King's birthday the way King would have wanted them to," he said. "We want them to make a conscious effort not to be passive in our society, but take a stand and get involved"