Asheville in Buncombe County, North Carolina EJI Marker
Photograph By Dave W, August 27, 2022

Marker Inscription:

Lynching in America

Between 1865 and 1950, thousands of African Americans were victims of mob violence and racial terror lynching across the United States. Following the Civil War, white Southerners fiercely resisted equal rights for African Americans and sought to uphold an ideology of white supremacy through intimidation and fatal violence.

Lynching emerged as the most public and notorious form of racial terrorism, intended to terrorize the entire Black community with arbitrary and unpredictable mob violence. Many Black people were pulled out of jails or given over to mobs by law enforcement officials who were legally required to protect them.

Public spectacle lynchings, like the lynching of Bob Brackett, were often attended by hundreds to thousands of white men, women, and children without fear of legal repercussions, and law enforcement frequently failed to intervene to prevent lynchings.

Local, state, and federal officials tolerated—and sometimes encouraged and participated in—these lawless killings of Black women. men, and children, especially by granting impunity to mob participants who rarely faced criminal or communal consequences for their lawlessness.

This sent the clear message that Black people had no protection from local officials and police. Although the names and stories of many victims may never be known, at least 120 racial terror lynchings have been documented in North Carolina, including at least three in Buncombe County.
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Background:
The Buncombe Community Remembrance Project and the MLK Association of Asheville and Buncombe County partnered with EJI to dedicate three historical markers today in memory of three documented victims of racial terror lynching in Buncombe County: John Humphries (1888), Hezekiah Rankin (1891), and Bob Brackett (1897).

The dedication ceremony took place in downtown Asheville at Pack Square Park, where the marker memorializing John Humphries stands near the jail where a white mob abducted the teenager before he was lynched.

The marker memorializing the lynching of Bob Brackett is located at Triangle Park in The Block, a historically Black business district in Asheville.

The third marker, which memorializes the lynching of Hezekiah Rankin, was erected in front of the Craven Street Bridge in the River Arts District near the site where he was lynched.

Over 200 community members gathered at Pack Square Park on a rainy Saturday morning for the opening ceremony.

The program began after a musical selection by local performing arts group Westsound Productions, which provided the soundtrack for the event. Coalition liaison and Vice Chair of the MLK Association of Asheville and Buncombe County Dr. Joseph Fox made opening remarks.

Civil rights liaison and MLK Association Chair Dr. Oralene Simmons spoke about the coalition’s formation and how community stakeholders came together to advance the Historical Marker Project, as well as a Soil Collection Project and Racial Justice Essay Contest.

Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer connected the work of the Buncombe Community Remembrance Project to the city’s commitment to contemporary racial justice work, including a reparations initiative that is underway in Asheville.

County Commissioner Brownie Newman offered remarks reflecting on various manifestations of racial injustice in Buncombe County today and emphasized the need to end mass incarceration, housing discrimination, and the devastation of urban renewal projects.

Coalition liaison and Buncombe County Schools educator Eric Grant recognized the winners of the EJI Racial Justice Essay Contest and teachers who supported the contest.

The three winners—Sarah Ann Buchanan of North Buncombe High School, Jennifer Russ of the School of Inquiry and Life Sciences in Asheville, and Montana Gura of Asheville High School—were invited to read their essays at the marker unveilings, which took place at the site of the markers following the main ceremony.

The Rev. Brent La Prince Edwards centered the audience in prayer throughout the ceremony and unveilings.