Benjamin Thomas

State board approves historic marker recognizing lynchings near Alexandria City Hall

Published October 7, 2026 at 2:45PM

Sign marking the lynching of Benjamin Thomas (image via City of Alexandria)

The Virginia Board of Historic Resources last month approved a new historical marker recognizing the lynchings of Joseph McCoy and Benjamin Thomas in Alexandria.

The 19-year-old McCoy was arrested without a warrant and then lynched by a mob on April 23, 1897, according to the city government. A mob of white residents stormed the Police House (now City Hall), where McCoy was being held after being accused of sexually assaulting three women. He was shot, stabbed and hanged from a lamppost at Cameron and Lee Streets.

Around Town

Titan football, Around the World Cultural Food Festival lead Alexandria’s weekend events

By Emily Leayman

Published August 28, 2026 at 2:45PM

The 2025 Around the World Cultural Food Festival was held at Oronoco Bay Park on Aug. 23. (Staff photo by Ryan Belmore)

It’s the final weekend of August, and there’s still summer fun happening even after the kids went back to school.

The Around the World Cultural Food Festival will be the biggest event of the weekend, bringing visitors to Alexandria’s Oronoco Bay Park for food, performances and vendors. Other notable events include the annual remembrance event for lynching victim Benjamin Thomas and the Alexandria City High School Titans’ first home football game of the season.

News

Civil rights discussion to headline annual remembrance event for teen lynched in Alexandria

By Emily Leayman

Published August 11, 2026 at 9:15AM

Sign marking the lynching of Benjamin Thomas (image via City of Alexandria)

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.

Around Town

Pulitzer winner to speak on political violence at Alexandria lynching remembrance

By ALXnow.com

Published July 28, 2025 at 9:00AM

Remembrance Event for Benjamin Thomas (via City of Alexandria)

Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Steven Hahn will address political violence and democracy at a remembrance event for Benjamin Thomas, a Black man lynched in Alexandria 126 years ago.

The Aug. 8 event at Shiloh Baptist Church, located at 1401 Jamieson Ave., will run from 6:30 to 8 p.m., with doors opening at 6:15 p.m. The program marks the anniversary of Thomas’ death on Aug. 8, 1899.