A Hundred Years After Her Lynching, Mary Turner’s Memorial Remains a Battleground
The Ways We Remember, Forget, and Erase the History of This Tragedy Is an Inescapable Part of Its Story
In Lowndes County, Georgia, by the side of State Road 122, stands a historical marker for “Mary Turner and the Lynching Rampage of 1918.” The metal marker describes in plain language a May 1918 spree of mob violence. After a white farmer was murdered, the mob killed at least 11 African Americans.
Mary Turner, the marker’s named victim, was eight months pregnant. The mob targeted her because she spoke out against the lynching of her husband Hayes. A crowd of several hundred watched the men hang, burn, and shoot Turner, …
