Over the past academic year, three Birmingham-Southern College students have been conducting research and sharing the untold stories of lynching victims in Jefferson County.

Alexandra Coberly, Darona Dancy, and Jackie Lamars all served as 2019-2020 Jefferson County Memorial Project (JCMP) Fellows. They worked with students from other Birmingham-area colleges and universities to research Jefferson County newspapers, teach others about their research, and work towards the mission to honor victims of racial terror and advocate for reform.

A local grassroots coalition, the Jefferson County Memorial Project (JCMP) works to research the county’s lynching victims, educate the public, and place memorials at lynching sites in partnership with the Equal Justice Initiative. The organization placed their first historical marker, a memorial for victims Tom Redmond and Jake Mckenzie, at Sloss Furnaces in September.

History professors Dr. Mark Schantz and Dr. Will Hustwit both served as faculty advisors and mentors for the students throughout the research process. Coberly, a history major, first heard about the opportunity from Schantz and was inspired to get involved after attending the National Memorial for Peace and Justice and The Legacy Museum opening in Montgomery in 2018.

“From then on, I was so struck by it – using history for activism and reform today. I’ve been getting more and more interested in it,” Coberly says.

During the fall term, each JCMP fellow was assigned a newspaper and a year to investigate, leading to three possible research tracks: reporting an undocumented victim, reporting new information on a documented victim, or reporting an event or aspect that upheld racial terror in Jefferson County.

Dancy began her research looking at publications in Birmingham Public Library, then searching the library’s digital collection. She wrote her report on Otis Brown, a previously undocumented lynching victim who was shot by a mob near Five Mile Creek in 1886. After being accused of stealing, Brown was killed before a trial or conviction.

“Finding information was the biggest challenge. I remember going through reel after reel and finding nothing, but I just had to push through,” Dancy says. “The opening at the museum gave me some closure. I felt the relief that we found victims, gave them justice, and memorialized them.”

Coberly and Lamars reported on ways in which newspapers and media encouraged racial terror. Coberly analyzed “The Hummingbird” newspaper in 1897 and how it chose to report some lynchings but not those within the local community. Lamars researched “The Labor Advocate” and several 1934 articles that dehumanized black Americans.

“I was surprised and disturbed by what I found in the newspaper,” Coberly says. “Writing something purely based on fact and knowing how to tie in current events was challenging.”

Along with the research, the JCMP Fellows participated in important discussions about how to tell the stories and share the information they found, including how to reference racist and degrading language in their reports. They shared their research at the official report release in January and plan to educate their peers at BSC.

“It’s cool to see the people who wanted to learn about it and really care. Sitting and listening to the stories is such an important part of the project,” Coberly says.

Learn more about the research in the 2020 report, “Jefferson County’s Broken Systems.” If you are interested in serving as a JCMP Fellow, email Dr. Schantz at [email protected].