City to hold Soil Collection Ceremony

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City to hold Soil Collection Ceremony
A view of the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama. (Photo/Equal Justice Initiative)
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By Ariana Wilson | awilson@alextimes.com

The Alexandria Community Remembrance Project will hold a soil collection ceremony on Saturday at 301 King St. in memory of two lynching victims, Joseph McCoy and Benjamin Thomas, according to a news release.

At the ceremony, soil will be drawn from two wooden vessels that eighth grade Jefferson-Houston IB School students designed. It will then be placed into jars and given to the Equal Justice Initiative.

McCoy was lynched at the southeast corner of Cameron and Lee Streets on April 23, 1897. Two years later, on Aug. 8, 1899, Thomas was pulled from the city’s jail and dragged more than half a mile by a white lynch mob.

ACRP will receive a steel pillar that memorializes McCoy and Thomas to be transported to a permanent space of remembrance in the City of Alexandria at a future date. ACRP will also take a pilgrimage on Oct. 6 to 10 to deliver the soil to the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama.

Visit alexandriava.gov/ Historic for more information.

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