Clayton, Jackson and McGhie remembered

By Christa Lawler clawler@duluthnews.com

The 100th anniversary of the lynching of Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson and Isaac McGhie — three Black circus workers falsely accused of raping a West Duluth woman — was supposed to be an event that filled the streets of Duluth with upward of 10,000 people and included a visit from one of the country’s biggest names in social justice.

The men were still remembered June 15, but in a more modest way that reflected the pandemic.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz visited the memorial in downtown Duluth while human rights officer Carl Crawford, who presents this tour a few times a year, offered the infamous story and moments of reflection at the site of the bronze statues and companion quotes from historical figures.

The governor later Tweeted: “We can never forget this shameful, tragic event in Minnesota’s history.”

The Clayton Jackson McGhie Memorial Committee had intended to draw an audience that matched the amount of people who were on the scene in 1920 when rioters busted into the jail and dragged the circus workers up the avenue to a light post, where they were hung in front of an audience — some who posed for a commemorative photograph later with the freshly dead bodies.

The large-scale event, including keynote speaker Bryan Steven of the Equal Rights Initiative, was pushed to a future date.

Despite the pandemic, more than a hundred people visited the memorial on the anniversary. There were free masks and bottled water, in addition to a buffet provided by Duluth Grill. The line extended down the block.

The previous week, the Minnesota Board of Pardons unanimously cleared Max Mason, who

Continued on page 32 had briefly served time in prison for raping the West Duluth woman who was involved with the accusation. Despite the lack of evidence, Mason was sentenced to 30 years, and then quietly released a few years into his sentence.

“There is a direct line between Max Mason and Clayton, Jackson and McGhie,” the governor said during the meeting, which was streamed on the Minnesota Department of Corrections’ Facebook page. “There is a direct line to what happened to George Floyd on the streets of Minneapolis. The inability for us to address the stain on our state for so long has led to those situations.”

The anniversary had further poignancy: Weeks earlier, George Floyd died after a Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes — a move to detain him for allegedly passing a

/ tschank@duluthnews.com) counterfeit bill. Protests and marches went on throughout the summer, starting with thousands of people gathering at City Hall a few days after Floyd’s death and a hundred or so more migrating to Interstate 35 to interfere with traffic — some stopping drivers to ask “Do Black lives matter?” before letting them trickle past. An even smaller group continued on late into the night before winding down in the Lincoln Park neighborhood.

On Juneteenth, marchers from the Clayton Jackson McGhie Memorial and another faction coming from Bayfront Festival Park, met at City Hall where Floyd was remembered and Diona Johnson sang Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit.”

Throughout the summer, small groups continued to gather at the site of the Clayton Jackson McGhie Memorial. u

More than a thousand people raise their fists in a moment of silence for 8 minutes and 46 seconds to honor George Floyd outside City Hall on Friday, June 19, during Duluth’s Juneteenth celebration. (Tyler Schank / tschank@ duluthnews.com)