Updated as of 5:37 p.m. on Feb. 10 to include video.
As Black History Month continues, the Alamance County Community Remembrance Coalition works to acknowledge and educate the community about racial terror. Through historical projects, educational events and vigils, the coalition fosters conversation about race and justice, making sure that the victims of racial violence in Alamance County are never forgotten.
Loy Campbell, a co-leader of the coalition, said the group is multiracial and provides an important mission.
"We're bringing the community together to provide education about our history of racial terror in this county,” Campbell said. “Specifically, we work in coalition and communication with the Equal Justice Initiative, which is a group out of Montgomery, Alabama, that's working on commemorating our history, because we believe that if we don't learn about our history, then we'll never move past it."
One of the coalition's initiatives is the EJI’s soil collection project. This project included collecting soil from sites where documented lynchings occurred, honoring the lives of Wyatt Outlaw, William Puryear and John Jeffress. The coalition hosts vigils and works closely with the African-American Cultural Arts & History Center to showcase the soil collections and Black history.
Outlaw, Puryear and Jeffress are the three known documented lynching victims in Alamance County. Outlaw and Puryear were both lynched by the Ku Klux Klan in 1870, and Jeffress was killed by a mob in 1920.
Exterior of the Burlington African American Cultural Arts & History Center on Feb. 9.
"We had the opportunity to put our hands in that soil and to have sort of a ceremony around that," Campbell said. "We've been in partnership with the Alamance Cultural Arts and History Center, where our exhibit for Wyatt Outlaw is, and the soil for the three lynching victims is housed in that museum in Burlington."
Sandra Reid, a member of the coalition and an Elon professor in human service studies, said there are ties directly from the coalition to Elon, as the Isabella Cannon Leadership Fellows travel on a two week trip to Alabama each year, as part of the civil rights tour.
“We take that pilgrimage to Alabama, and that also brings this to life for me, as we travel in Montgomery, in Tuskegee, in Selma, in Birmingham, all those places,” Reid said.
LaShauna Austria, a co-leader of the coalition, said the group meets monthly to engage in remembrance and build community.
"Many of us have taken pilgrimages to Montgomery, Alabama, and other places in the United States to think about the history of this country," Austria said.
Black History Month may be the shortest month of the year — but Austria said it is a time for people to bring awareness to a very important topic.
“It’s the intentionality during February that I think is beautiful — the joy,” Austria said. “And I think during a time like what we’re experiencing in this country, it's really important that we don’t erase history but elevate it and continue to situate ourselves around these stories — stories of resistance, joy and struggle — so we don’t repeat the same horrible things that have happened in this country."
Reid said although the group is small, it’s full of people who want to make a change in the community.
“It's people who really care about what is happening in this country and what's happening in Alamance County. It's people who want to tell these stories for the betterment of all,” Reid said. And it's just just good people. It's good people.”
Upcoming events:
Sunday, Feb. 23
Wyatt Outlaw Vigil
6 p.m. | Outside the Alamance County Courthouse, 1 Court Square, Graham, North Carolina 27253
An annual event focused on prayer and community to remember the life of Wyatt Outlaw, a Black man who was lynched in 1870
Saturday, March 1,
Legacies of Lynching: An Inaugural Gathering - A gathering of all Community Remembrance Coalitions across the state of North Carolina
8 a.m. | Friday Conference Center, 100 Friday Center Dr, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27517
A daylong conference focused on honoring the memories of those lost to lynching and working on education across the state. Registration is free at go.unc.edu/legaciesoflynching
March 10, 17, 24, 31, and April 1
What Lies Between Us study
6 - 7:30 p.m. | First Presbyterian Church, 508 W. Davis Street Burlington, North Carolina 27215
Conversations about racism focused on history and how faith may inform responses to racism. Register at https://bit.ly/WhatLiesBetweenUs