[Archived] City of Alexandria Remembers Anniversary of 1899 Lynching of Benjamin Thomas

­­For Immediate Release: August 2, 2021

The City of Alexandria invites the community to join in the remembrance of Benjamin Thomas, a black teenager who was killed by a lynch mob at the corner of S. Fairfax and King Streets, on August 8, 1899. The City has planned the following related events:

• August 3, at 4 p.m., Historian LaNitra M. Berger will explore how lynching photography and representations of lynching in American art provide historical information and context for racial violence in the United States. Register for this free, virtual program.
  
• Throughout the weekend of August 6–9, Alexandria City Hall, Carlyle House and the George Washington Masonic Memorial will be illuminated in purple, the color of mourning.This lighting is intended to demonstrate belated accountability for the incident, while showing honor and respect for Thomas.
• August 8, 7–8 p.m., a remembrance program, wreath-laying, and marker unveiling will be held at Market Square, and the lynching site (near the corner of King and Fairfax Streets) as part of the Alexandria Community Remembrance Project. Visitors can pay their respects by visiting the site and learning about the lynching.Thomas’ death was one of two documented lynchings in Alexandria. Between 1882 and 1968, 11 documented lynchings occurred in Northern Virginia and 100 occurred in the Commonwealth.

The nonprofit Equal Justice Institute’s (EJI) National Memorial for Peace and Justice includes more than 800 steel monuments, one for each city or county in the United States where a racial terror-related lynching took place. The lynching victims’ names are engraved on the pillars. A field of identical monuments is in a park adjacent to the memorial.

The EJI Community Remembrance Project invites cities and counties across the country to claim their monuments and install them in the areas they represent. In addition to installing the pillars, EJI encourages participating communities to place historical markers and to collect soil from the site of each lynching, to allow communities to gain perspective and experience that is crucial to managing the monument retrieval process wisely and effectively. One of the main goals of of Alexandria’s Community Remembrance Project is to bring the pillar with the names of Alexandria’s two documented lynching victims—Joseph McCoy and Benjamin Thomas—from Alabama to Alexandria for placement in a prominent location.

Visit alexandriava.gov/Historic for more information about Alexandria’s EJI Community Remembrance Project, future programming, the history of lynching in Alexandria, answers to frequently asked questions, and to sign up for the monthly newsletter.

For inquiries from the news media only, contact Kelly Gilfillen, Acting Director, Office of Communications and Public Information at kelly.gilfillen@alexandriava.gov or 571.208.9001.

For reasonable disability accommodation, contact Nicole.Quinn@alexandriava.gov or 703.746.4554, Virginia Relay 711.