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Black Teen Living In Red Community Learns Of A Mass Lynching, Rights A Wrong 144 Years In The Making [1]
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Date: 2022-11-13
Bringer of light.
On October 11, 1878, seven black men…. Jim Good, Jeff Hopkins, Ed Warner, William Chambers, Dan Harris, Sr, Dan Harris, Jr. and John Harris were lynched near the town of Mount Vernon in Posey County, Indiana.
They were accused of robbery and rape at a brothel, and most were taken from jail by a mob and hung in the tree that still stands in front of the courthouse.
After they were shot and stabbed.
And before they were burned and desecrated.
It was the largest lynching in Indiana’s history.
It’s not something that the town, which is 96% white and 70% Republican, necessarily wanted to be reminded of or even for the most part remembers.
But they had to come to terms with their uncomfortable past recently when one of their own, 17- year-old Sophie Kloppenburg….. born and raised and well liked… implored them that it was indeed time to do so.
Sophie Kloppenburg had just found out about the lynching from driving instructor Dr. Tom Gugenheim during a driving test.
“I was so shocked because I’ve lived here my whole life and I had no idea that it has happened. I really thought that if I didn’t know about it, other people didn’t know about it and I really wanted to make sure that these men weren’t forgotten.”
She visited the site and investigated and learned that there was no marker or memorial anywhere in the town to recognize the event.
She spent nights imagining the unimaginable and reached out to town and county officials with her concerns.
That there must be a memorial at the site commemorating and remembering these seven men… and to remember tangibly the horrors of racism.
“It’s frustrating and horrible and sad and I don’t even know how to describe it,” said Sophie. “It was common at that time at least for people to bypass the laws and especially white men, to take it upon themselves to administer the law to black communities because they felt like they had power over them.”
Posey County Commissioner Head Bill Collins was the first local official to speak at the memorial on Sunday.
He praised Sophie, who he has known since she was a tot, who has babysit his kids, and who is on the same high school track and basketball sports teams, including being captain of the school swim team, as his daughter.
Said Collins, "My first reaction was to say 'no,' not because the project wasn't worthy, but because our courthouse is the face of Posey County, and I was afraid that if we started putting any project on there, the floodgates would open, and it would overwhelm the courthouse.
You'd probably be hard-pressed to find very many seniors in high school anywhere in the country that would be willing to take on something like this. And there are even fewer who could succeed.”
But as he thought about it, he realized it was what it was and it is what it is, and backed her fully.
Said Sophie, "The commissioners expressed concerns about not wanting to have all of that so openly displayed, but I think we still really get the point across with the wording that we get. They were killed, they were lynched."
And after months of discussions with town, city and county leaders, and with the help of teachers, University of Southern Indiana historians and community members, Kloppenburg succeeded in securing the memorial's place at the old courthouse.
Surprising to us here at DK, but not to Sophie, there was no tangible opposition to her modest proposal in such a town with such a demographic.
In her journey, many members of her community, many staunch conservatives, donated time and effort.
One such was Ben Uchitelle.
“My great grandfather actually saw the bodies hanging. What crimes may or may not have been allegedly committed, they received no trial, no rights, no nothing, and that is what we are concentrating on,” he said. Another was former Posey County Judge James M. Redwine. "We need to bring some justice to the memory of these victims so that we can progress as a society, not cover it up and not repeat it.
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When Sophie walked up to the lectern, her community gave her a standing ovation.
Sophie told them, "A mob watching African Americans hang has been replaced by a crowd watching us speak and lead.
We're having the difficult conversations, owning up to this horrible history and giving a tangible voice to minorities, past and present.
I’m happy everyone’s here because this is everyone’s history – Black and White and everything in between. This isn’t just Black people’s history or White people’s history. It’s Posey County’s history.
Racism still exists; I see it on the news and the incarceration rates, in school hallways. It's our responsibility to equally respect everyone with different tongues, cultures and skin colors. It's our responsibility to call out neighbors and friends and remind everyone that any level of injustice is intolerable. Racism isn't gone.
I'm proud of Posey County, Indiana, and the beautiful people here for having the difficult conversations and giving a tangible voice to its minorities. Thank you."
“Racism wasn’t just bad words in the hallway or making fun of people. It was hanging people from trees and killing them in gruesome ways. And so, I just wanted to give those people a voice and a proper memorial for what happened to them because there wasn’t anything else for them,”
This is about them and everything we’re doing is about remembering them and what happened,” Sophie says. “This took a lot of work to get done but the end result was just really rewarding.
I think the best word to describe this is bittersweet, because what happened to them, I mean, we shouldn't even have to be standing here today.
But it happened, and so we're acknowledging and growing from it.”
Said Rev. Gerald Arnold, president of the NAACP’s Evansville Branch when opening the ceremony, “We’re honored to be here today to talk about our past, the wrongs, and today we are committed to making sure that never happens again.
And then we move forward in brotherly love.”
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