On Thursday, April 23, the City of Alexandria, led by the Alexandria Community Remembrance Project, will acknowledge and remember the lynching of native son, Joseph McCoy, at an evening event at Roberts Memorial United Methodist Church, 606 South Washington St.
The widely published Dr. Rodney Sadler is the keynote speaker for this free secular program that will begin at 7 pm. He plans to explore the historic use of violence by those invested with authority and power, with remarks titled, “Governed by Fear and Hate: The Tools of the Supremacist State.”
In the first hour of April 23, 1897, Joseph McCoy was lynched on the corner of Lee and Cameron Streets. Since 2019, ACRP has shared this history and held events to acknowledge that McCoy, a citizen of Alexandria, was accused, arrested, taken from police custody and killed by a mob that local authorities refused to stop and whose members were never held accountable. While Joseph McCoy’s civil rights were violated and dismissed, his accusers and murderers were protected. The Black community was traumatized by the lynching and the violent nights that followed when armed citizens, police and the Alexandria Light Infantry patrolled the streets in search of imaginary agitators and insurrectionists…