Duluth lynchings

The industrial city of Duluth had been growing rapidly in the early 20th century, attracting many European immigrants. By 1920 one third of its population of 100,000 was foreign-born, with immigrants from Scandinavia, Germany, Poland, Italy, Austria-Hungary, and the Russian Empire. Many of the immigrants lived in West Duluth, a working-class section of the city. The African-American community in the city was small, with a total population of 495, but a number had been hired by U.S. Steel, the major employer in the area. Kinkkonen was found dead, tarred and feathered, and hanging from a tree in Lester Park. Authorities did not pursue murder charges; they claimed that he had committed suicide after the shame of having been tarred and feathered. The period after World War I was disruptive in the United States, as numerous veterans sought to re-enter the job market and society. The government had no program to help them. Racial antagonism erupted in 1919 as race riots of whites against blacks in numerous cities across the U.S.; it was called the Red Summer of 1919. In response, blacks in Chicago and other cities fought back against these attacks. ==Event==

On June 14, 1920, the John Robinson Circus arrived in Duluth for a free parade and a one-night performance. Two local white teenagers, Irene Tusken, age 19, and James "Jimmie" Sullivan, 18, met at the circus and ended up behind the big top, watching the black workers dismantle the menagerie tent, load wagons and generally get the circus ready to move on. It is unknown what took place between Tusken, Sullivan and the workers. Later that night Sullivan claimed to his father that he and Tusken were held at gunpoint, and that Tusken was raped and robbed by six black circus workers who were part of the crew. In the early morning of June 15, Duluth police chief John Murphy received a call from James Sullivan's father, saying six black circus workers had held his son and girlfriend at gunpoint and then raped and robbed Irene Tusken. Chief Murphy lined up all 150 or so roustabouts, food service workers, and props-men on the side of the tracks, and asked Sullivan and Tusken to identify their attackers. The police arrested six black men as suspects in connection with the rape and robbery and held them in custody in the city jail. Newspapers printed articles about the alleged rape; rumors spread in the white community about it, including that Tusken was dying from her injuries. That evening, a mob of between 1,000 and 10,000 men The Duluth commissioner of public safety, William F. Murnian, ordered the police not to use their guns to protect the prisoners. The mob used heavy timbers, bricks, and rails to break down doors and windows, pulling the six black men from their cells. The mob seized Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson, and Isaac McGhie. They took them out and convicted them of Tusken's rape in a kangaroo court. The mob took the three men one block to the intersection 1st Street and 2nd Avenue East, where they beat them and hanged them from a light pole. The next day, the Minnesota National Guard arrived at Duluth to secure the area and to guard the surviving prisoners, as well as ten additional black suspects whom the police had arrested from the circus at its next stop. They were moved under heavy guard to the jail of St. Louis County. ==Aftermath==

Reactions The killings made headlines throughout the country. The Chicago Evening Post wrote: "This is a crime of a Northern state, as black and ugly as any that has brought the South in disrepute. The Duluth authorities stand condemned in the eyes of the nation." An article in the Minneapolis Journal accused the lynch mob of putting a "stain on the name of Minnesota", stating: "The sudden flaming up of racial passion, which is the reproach of the South, may also occur, as we now learn in the bitterness of humiliation, in Minnesota." However, the 1968 Civil Rights Act ensured that hate crimes based on race could be prosecuted at the federal level. Minnesota also has a hate crime law which ensures cooperation with the federal government to prosecute those who committed hate crimes defined in the 1968 Civil Rights Act as well. ==Legacy==

Irene Tusken's great nephew, as of 2020, is the chief of the Duluth Police Department. Memorial Residents of Duluth began to work on ways to commemorate the victims of the lynching. The Clayton Jackson McGhie Scholarship Committee set up a fund in 2000, and awarded its first scholarship in 2005. On October 10, 2003, a plaza and statues were dedicated in Duluth to the three men who were killed. The bronze statues are part of a memorial across the street from the site of the lynchings. The Clayton Jackson McGhie Memorial was designed and sculpted by Carla J. Stetson, in collaboration with editor and writer Anthony Peyton-Porter. At the memorial's opening, thousands of citizens of Duluth and surrounding communities gathered for a ceremony. The final speaker at the ceremony was Warren Read, the great-grandson of one of the most prominent leaders of the lynch mob: Read has written a memoir exploring his learning about his great-grandfather's role in the lynching, as well his decision to find and connect with the descendants of Elmer Jackson, one of the men killed that night. Read's book, The Lyncher in Me, was published in March 2008. 100th anniversary commemoration On June 15, 2020, the 100th anniversary of the lynchings, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz visited the memorial and issued a proclamation recognizing the day as Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson, and Isaac McGhie Commemoration Day. In his proclamation, Walz stated "The foundational principles of our State and Nation were horrifically and inexcusably violated on June 15, 1920, when Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson, and Isaac McGhie, three Black men, were wrongfully accused of a crime", and "We must not allow such communal atrocities to happen again. Everyone must be aware of this tragic history." He compared the lynchings to the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis three weeks before. Cultural reference The first verse of the 1965 song "Desolation Row" by Bob Dylan references the lynchings in Duluth: Dylan was born in Duluth, and grew up in Hibbing, northwest of Duluth. His father, Abram Zimmerman, was 9 years old in June 1920 and lived two blocks from the site of the lynchings. Posthumous pardon In 2020, during the George Floyd protests Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison proposed that the related 1920 conviction of Max Mason, a black man convicted of raping an 18-year-old woman, was a false charge and should be reversed. On June 12, 2020, the Minnesota Board of Pardons granted Max Mason the first posthumous pardon in the history of the state of Minnesota. In 1920, Mason, who was working in the same traveling circus as the three who were lynched, was convicted of rape and sentenced to 30 years in prison. He was released from prison after four years on the condition that he not return to Minnesota for 16 years. ==See also==