An NAACP official will be the keynote speaker of Alexandria’s annual remembrance event for one of its two documented lynching victims in city history.
The Alexandria Community Remembrance Project will host the “Civil Rights in Uncertain Times” conversation with Myesha Braden, deputy general counsel for the NAACP, from 7-8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 28 at Shiloh Baptist Church (1401 Jamieson Avenue). Braden, a Tulane Law graduate, has worked on civil rights and has served in positions at the Department of Justice and in the nonprofit sector.
Along with the discussion, the event will feature music by Charles E. Miller and remarks from Mayor Alyia Gaskins. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m.
The program marks the anniversary of Thomas’ death 127 years ago.
On Tues. Aug. 8, 1899, 16-year-old native Alexandrian Benjamin Thomas was lynched in Alexandria at the corner of Fairfax and King Streets after being dragged a half mile from the jail on Princess and St. Asaph Streets. Accused by his next-door neighbor’s seven-year-old daughter of assault, Benjamin was arrested on the child’s testimony alone but wavered in his assertion of his innocence. In the aftermath, both Black and white Alexandrians believed him.
News of his murder, after local Black leadership warned authorities of a threat to lynch him, led Alexandria and D.C. church leaders to seek a boycott of businesses tied to anyone part of the lynch mob. On Mon. Aug. 28, 1899, more than 600 people attended a mass meeting at Shiloh Baptist Church in memory of Thomas in protest of his lynching.
In addition to the Remembrance program, Shiloh Baptist Church and Freedom House Museum (1315 Duke Street) will be open for visitors from 5:30-6:30 p.m. on Aug. 28.
The Alexandria Community Remembrance Project was created in 2019 to join the Equal Justice Initiative’s Remembrance Project that memorializes victims of racial violence. Thomas is one of two documented lynching victims in Alexandria, along with Joseph McCoy, who was lynched on April 23, 1897. The public can also view a historic marker in remembrance of Thomas on the southwest corner of Fairfax and King Street.
Image 1 via City of Alexandria
