MANASOTA REMEMBERS HOLDS SOIL CEREMONY
C.S. Howard
The Sarasota and Manatee Community Remembrance Project – Manasota Remembers – held its soil ceremony to honor six lives lost to racial terror lynching held in the community’s past history. A diverse crowd of close to 200 residents attended the ceremony held at the Unitarian Universalist of Sarasota on Saturday, November 9th.
Manasota Remembers is a coalition led by the Boxser Diversity Initiative, together with the Manasota Branch of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), Newtown Alive and the Sarasota African American Cultural Coalition. In partnership with the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) in Montgomery, Alabama, the goal of the coalition is to honor local victims of racial terror lynching. EJI has documented 316 African American victims of such lynchings killed in Florida. The racial terror and acts of barbaric violence that took place in Florida are among the worst in America.
Lynching victims recognized during the remembrance were Willie English, James Franklin, Mr. Ruddy, Sam Ellis and Wade Ellis and Henry Thomas. English was killed while in police custody in Bradenton. A white woman reported that he had spoken to her with “insulting words.” Franklin was also killed in police custody after assisting a white girl who had fallen out of a tree, who was later accused of molesting her. Ruddy had a dispute with his paymaster which led to him being shot while in hiding; in the search for Ruddy, 100 armed white men followed bloodhounds to the home of the Ellis brothers, where they were shot to death. Thomas was accused of trying to kiss a white girl and threatening her with a gun. He was hung from a tree until he was dead. His soil will be placed at the Legacy Museum in Montgomery, Alabama as part of EJI.
Phase 1 of the project was an essay contest for local high school students where cash prizes were awarded to four students. Phase 2 consisted of the placement of a historical marker located on the grounds of the Unitarian Universalists of Sarasota which memorizes the six documented and the many undocumented victims of racial violence in Sarasota and Manatee counties. The collection of soil from the locations of the lynchings was phase 3 of the project. Soil was collected by local youth including the Sarasota NAACP Youth Council. Collected soil will be on exhibit in the new Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration and a local site to be determined.
Racial terror lynchings took place in over 20 states, in both rural and more urban settlements. Florida had the highest per-capita rate of lynchings in America for 50 years. State officials did very little to curb the white mob violence that menaced so many African Americans, and sometimes officials were even complicit and actively involved in committing acts of racial terror.
Dr. Mike Weddle served as chair of the Manasota Remembers Soil Ceremony Committee.
