Early on a Tuesday morning, shots were fired in Charlotte just a few steps from the only hospital for blacks in the city. A mob of white men dragged 22-year-old black Joe McNeely from his hospital bed, stripped him naked and shot him in the street.
The incident was the first documented case of lynching in Mecklenburg County.
Now, on the 111th anniversary of McNeely’s murder, a project honoring Charlotte’s lynching victims aims to remind Charlotteans that “it happened here.”
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Remembrance Project was created to commemorate the victims of the Charlotte lynchings. Its goal is to address the historical legacy of racist violence in the community by creating opportunities for reflection, education and remembrance.
The project is part of a national movement aimed at addressing America’s history of racially motivated lynchings.
Charlotte’s local initiative aims to “tell the truth” and help the community “move toward reconciliation,” according to its newly launched website. The initiative has several parts and includes storytelling through poetry and film, community engagement, setting up place markers, and more to bring a brutally significant past to the forefront.
A dark past that also happened here
Lynchings are a dark but present part of American history that illustrates the power and racial imbalance in the country. In some cases, hangings or other executions were even announced in the newspaper as public gatherings.
Although many people equate only public executions with lynching, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) defines lynching as any public killing of a person without due process of law.
According to the NAACP, most victims of lynching in the United States were black, particularly among reported cases in the South.
According to the Equal Justice Initiative, there are 4,075 documented racially motivated lynchings that occurred between 1877 and 1950 in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.
Researchers assume that there were other lynchings, but they were not documented.
Two cases were documented in the Mecklenburg district.
On August 26, 1913, Joseph McNeely was killed in front of the Good Samaritan Hospital at what is now Bank of American Stadium in Uptown Charlotte.
On June 30, 1929, a young black girl found the body of Willie McDaniel near his home in what is now Reedy Creek Park and Nature Preserve.
The Charlotte Remembrance Project has compiled accounts of each man’s fate, including events before and after his death, through the examination of newspaper clippings, rare documents and other research methods.
Krista Terrell, the project’s director of content and communications, told QCity Metro that the project has offered multiple ways to learn about each man’s story, including audio, video and written narratives in both “short versions” and more detailed versions.
The project worked with local artists and organizations to create a film that captures the significance of the initiative and humanizes the victims against the backdrop of harsh historical data.
Terrell said the project enlisted local spoken word artist and storyteller Hannah Hassan to tell the men’s stories. Hassan also wrote poetry for the project. Creative company Lloyd Visuals produced the film.
The film, along with three accompanying poems, was released on the website on Monday as part of a broader community engagement approach.
Promote conversations
Terrell said the decision to launch the website on the anniversary of McNeely’s death was made in his memory and to stimulate discussion about Charlotte’s lynching history.
The initiative aims to engage people by offering a variety of resources to facilitate dialogue. Terrell said the hope is to create an atmosphere where residents come together to share their thoughts and experiences and gain insights into how to reconcile with the past.
Terrell told QCity Metro that it is of utmost importance to acknowledge the potential emotional impact the initiative could have on some people.
With this in mind, the project developed a toolkit with summaries, discussion guides and background information to help people moderate discussions in their communities.
“We encourage people to use the toolkit to have their own conversations,” she said. “And to share the story of the two men with their friends, family, colleagues and neighbors.”
Another aspect of the project includes the removal of soil from the sites of the McNeely and McDaniel lynchings and the future installation of historical markers commemorating the events.
Future soil collection events for McDaniel at Reedy Creek Park are already being planned and will build on a previous soil collection held for Joe McNeely at Bank of America Stadium in May 2021.
In addition, an essay contest for high school students focusing on racial justice will be held, the aim of which is to encourage youth participation and historical awareness.
Terrell also said that people could sign a statement of support for the project and its vision on the website.
For more information and ways to get involved, visit ItHappenedHereCLT. All available information and resources are freely accessible.
