Last fall, the Whitfield Remembrance Project held an event at the unmarked grave of Lon McCamy to bring attention to the last man believed to be lynched in Whitfield County.
On Saturday, the group, which was formed to promote racial reconciliation, will further honor McCamy’s memory when they travel by chartered bus to the Equal Justice Initiative’s Legacy Sites in Montgomery, Alabama, to deliver soil from the site of McCamy’s lynching. The soil, like that from the sites of other lynchings of Black men, will be displayed at the initiative’s Legacy Museum. The group will also tour the museum, the National Memorial for Peace and Justice and the Freedom Monument Sculpture Park.
Valerie Silva, a member of the Whitfield Remembrance Project, said there are still seats available on the bus for adults and teens who would like to attend. The bus will leave at 6 a.m. from the Emery Center and is expected to return about midnight. Tickets are $80.
“We think this will be interesting and informative for teens and adults,” Silva said.
Those who are interested can email whitfieldremembranceproject@gmail.com or sign up at the Whitfield Remembrance Project’s Facebook page.
McCamy is believed to be the last of five Black men lynched in Whitfield County.
According to research by local lawyer and historian Sam Gowin, on Sept. 6, 1936, a group of white men entered the Whitfield County jail in downtown Dalton. They took, or possibly were given, the keys to the jail and removed McCamy, who was accused of entering the home of a white woman and touching her.
As McCamy tried to flee he was shot several times. He was strung up by the neck on a telephone pole and shot several more times. No one was criminally charged with his death although Superior Court Judge C.C. Pittman denounced the murder and urged a grand jury to investigate it.
Silva said the group has plans to honor the other lynching victims as well.