Retrieve the Vigo County Monument

To the Editor:

Thanks to the Terre Haute Tribune Star for two stories on the racial terrorist act of lynching.

The “New Alabama memorial focuses on America’s lynching past” story added some moving details on the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama.  And the story on the lynchings in our community’s front and backyard, “One lynching each recorded in Vigo, Sullivan histories” also deserves readers’ close attention and thought.

But I do feel compelled to add my reaction to the murder of George Ward while in legal custody in a Vigo County jail. I do this in the form of some questions and a strong recommendation. . . .

How heavy was the locked door outside the Vigo County jail?  How many men rammed the iron- clad timber against its wood until it splintered?  What were those rushing into this holding space thinking?  What were they yelling?

Who smashed in the head of the man taken from this jail?  Did his hammer blow kill the prisoner?

Who decided the body should be hung by the neck from the bridge over the Wabash River?  Who started the bonfire that turned the dead body of this man to charred fragments of bone? 

 And there is this: Who were the one to two thousand in the mob who stood by and watched the lynching of this human being?  Did anyone step forward to protest?

Were any of these citizens, participants or spectators, arrested?  Did any go to court, face a trial, be judged guilty or innocent by a jury, be subjected, if guilty, to any punishment handed down by that court?

We know the answer to this last question.  Not one. This did not happen.

And it did not happen for George Ward, the man who was lynched in Vigo County on February 26, 1901.

Hard questions to ponder and discuss.

But as  Bryan Stevenson, a founding member of Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) which is the organization behind this powerful memorial, states in a recent interview,

“People do not want to admit wrongdoing in America, Mr. Stevenson said, because they expect only punishment.  I’m not interested in talking about America’s history because I want to punish America. I want to liberate America. And I think it’s important for us to do this as an organization that has created an identity that is as disassociated from punishment as possible.”


“Liberate America.”  The truth is there, in 800 county monuments holding 4400 names of lynching victims. One is inscribed “Vigo County, Indiana.”  The name “George Ward” is recorded on it.  But the deeper truth in that monument must be faced, must be earned, if it is to be liberating. Steel and stone doesn’t liberate.  The National Memorial for Peace and Justice is not meant to be a static piece of architectural sculpture.

And so EJI is challenging Vigo County to put


But now we have this . . .

On April 26, 2018, the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama, was opened to the public. This memorial is dedicated to the black victims of lynchings. Columns of corten steel hang from the ceiling. There is one suspended monument for each of the counties  in the United States where a documented racial terror lynching took place. Each includes the name(s) of the victims or the designation “Unknown.” 4400 in all.

One of these monuments is inscribed “Vigo County, Indiana.”  The name “George Ward” is recorded on it. Twelve Indiana counties bearing a total of eighteen names are a  part of this memorial.

The  Equal Justice Initiative is the force behind the creation of this powerful statement of historical memory.  And though created out of stone and steel, it is not a static memorial. It directly  challenges Vigo County and 800 counties in 20 states around the nation to confront their past, their record as part of the racist terror of lynchings.  Here is that challenge:
“Just outside the main Memorial structure is a field of identical monuments, one for each county where a lynching has been documented.  EJI [Equal Justice Initiative]   invites each of these counties to retrieve their county's monument and place it back in the county where the terror lynchings took place. [my emphasis]  This National Memorial for Peace and Justice hopes to have component pieces all over the United States where racial terror lynchings have been documented. Over time, the national memorial will serve as a report on which parts of the country have confronted the truth of this terror and which have not.

If you would like to express interest in the invitation to claim a Memorial monument for your county/state/community, please complete this form to share your interest with us.”

In a recent interview, Bryan Stevenson, a founding member of EJI,  states the rationale and purpose of the National Memorial for Peace and Justice Monument Retrieval project:

“People do not want to admit wrongdoing in America, Mr. Stevenson said, because they expect only punishment.  I’m not interested in talking about America’s history because I want to punish America. I want to liberate America. And I think it’s important for us to do this as an organization that has created an identity that is as disassociated from punishment as possible.”

Accounts of the George Ward  lynching can be found in documents collected and digitized in the “Wabash Valley Visions & Voices Digital Memory Project.” This valuable project [go here:  http://visions.indstate.edu/index.html] underlines their goal with this statement: “Preserving the Past and Present for the Future”

The future is now.

Will Vigo County step up, recognize the crime thousands of its citizens participated in on February 26, 1901?  Will we take steps to contemplate and discuss this event from our past and its significance for our present and future?

Will our community become part of the National Memorial for Peace and Justice Monument Retrieval project?

Gary W. Daily

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The Equal Justice Initiative  Museum and Memorial website is here:

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