Readers React: ‘Hanging Bridge’ memorial would honor victims, hold killers accountable
To the editor: Jason Morgan Ward’s moving account of white vigilantes’ lynching of six black people from a bridge in Shubuta, Miss., militates strongly for erection of a memorial there. (“Southern ‘Hanging Bridge: A monument to Judge Lynch,” op-ed, Feb. 22)
It’s understandable that Shubuta residents aren’t proud of this vile chapter in the town’s history, so they oppose public access to the now-barricaded lynch site, saying that “people don’t need to see that.”
Ward notes that Shubuta’s white cemetery — just outside which the lynch victims were buried — features a prominent monument honoring “Our Confederate Dead.” Alongside that monument lie the headstones of some likely lynch mob members. During their lives, they escaped accountability for their outrageous crimes.
These vigilantes need to be held accountable in death. A lynch-site memorial would serve this purpose, and more.
Future generations can learn much from Shubuta’s repugnant history; it shouldn’t be swept under the rug.
Sandra Perez, Santa Maria
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