Shedding light on lynchings

From the Ku Klux Klan to public lynchings, Indiana's history has long been marred by segregation and racism against African-American residents. While lynchings have been outlawed since 1930, a close examination of the once-common form of execution sheds light on an unsavory element of Indiana's past.\nThe earliest-known lynching took place in 1810, according to an Indianapolis Star article. In the 120 years it was practiced, 41 people were lynched, including 15 African Americans. Many of these executions were punishment for assaults on white women.\nThe final lynching took place in 1930 in Marion, Ind,, where two African American men, Tom Shipp,18, and Abraham Smith,19, were beaten and hanged from a tree for allegedly robbing and assaulting a white couple.\nJames Madison, who is the Thomas and Kathryn Miller Professor of History at Indiana University, has made it his goal to study this final lynching and the impacts it has on racism in the state. \nIn his book, A Lynching in the Heartland: Race and Memory in America, Madison sets out to explore the racial climate that allowed the lynchings to take place. Though it begins with the lynching, the book continues into the present.\nMadison said race is still a crucial issue in modern society. \n"There are many Americans who argue this is not a major part of our history," he said. "I want to put it as a center on the history table. Not just lynching but other issues of race."\nIn confronting America's past, Madison worries that people want to sugar coat their history.\n"We want a feel-good history that convinces people they're God's chosen people, but we have to find a way to deal with the tragedy of our pasts," he said.\nJames Cameron, an African-American man, was arrested with Shipp and Smith but not executed. Since then, he has found a way to deal with the past while educating others. Two years ago he came to IU and spoke at the Willkie auditorium as part of that year's Black History Month events.\nThe Web site theblackmarket.com, which caters to African-American history and news, includes a biographical account of the night Cameron was nearly hanged for a crime for which he was later acquitted. \n"He is beaten and dragged out to the tree where his friends now hang, and the rope is placed around his neck…" the Web site says. "Though James never admitted any guilt in the assault, he served four years in prison. The female victim later changed her story and confirmed that James had no part in the assault."\nCameron has since committed his life to educating others about racial equality. In 1984, he published A Time of Terror, an autobiographical account of that night in 1930. He also founded America's Black Holocaust Museum, Inc., a nonprofit museum devoted to African-American history in the United States, in 1988.\n"It seems that every group of people have a chance to erect museums and memorials and statues in our country so that the world can never forget," Cameron said, in an interview for eblackmarket.com.\nMadison said no one knows for sure why Cameron was spared but Shipp and Smith weren't.\n"He simply was very fortunate," Madison said. "He was also the third one out of the jail, and by that time, the lynch mob had had enough of it."\nIn Madison's book, he agrees that education and awareness are crucial and that there are still color lines drawn in America. Issues of race will continue unless they are addressed, he said.\n"Black history is for all people," he said. "In some ways white folks need it more than African Americans." \nHe said the University has worked hard to promote diversity, but there are still too few students of color on campus, which hurts the learning environment.\n"We all need that diversity," he said. "I need it, you need it. It's a part of our learning"