(Lawrenceville, Ga., June 17, 2021) – He sat in the Lawrenceville jail, accused of assaulting a white woman. But the world would never know if Charles Hale was innocent or guilty. Shortly after midnight on April 8, 1911, a mob of at least 200 men broke into the jail, kidnapped Hale and hanged him from a telephone pole on the very grounds where he was never rightfully tried: The Gwinnett Historic Courthouse.

In solidarity and in recognition of this injustice, Gwinnett County is partnering with the city of Lawrenceville, the Gwinnett Historical Restoration and Preservation Board and the Gwinnett Remembrance Coalition for a soil collection ceremony on the very spot where Hale was murdered. The event will take place on Saturday, June 19, 2021 from 10 a.m. until 11:15 a.m.

“It is time for us to have an honest reckoning with the tragic and horrific events that occurred right here in Gwinnett County,” said Gwinnett County Chairwoman Nicole Love Hendrickson. “Only by facing our collective history can we ensure some sort of restoration takes place. Make no mistake, lynchings were a form of domestic terrorism by one segment of the population against another. They left terrible psychic scars that resonate even now. The lynching on this site didn’t just happen to Charles Hale; it happened to an entire people.”

During the ceremony, the soil will be collected and separated into two jars. The first jar will be housed at the former Hooper-Renwick School, Gwinnett’s only African-American public school for decades. The site will now be the home of the Lawrenceville branch of the Gwinnett County Public Library.

“This ceremony serves as a public acknowledgement that a horrific crime occurred. It wasn’t done at some distant location. It was local. That was devastating. Then and now,” said District 4 Commissioner Marlene Fosque. “At the time of his lynching, Charles Hale ceased to be a man and was made a symbol of racial oppression. His murder became a message: ‘Stay in your place or else.’ The trauma of that moment has lingered generation after generation. Healing will only occur when everyone confronts what happened here and recognizes the systemic injustice of Charles Hale’s death. Let this ceremony be a start.”

The second jar will be transported to the Equal Justice Initiative Museum in Montgomery, AL. The museum’s National Memorial for Peace and Justice honors the legacy of black people who were enslaved, lynched and “humiliated by racial segregation and Jim Crow.”

“We cannot heal the deep wounds inflicted by racial terrorism until we tell the truth about it. My hope is that this event will in some way, help to right these horrific wrongs and perhaps bring a measure of peace to the memories of these individuals, their descendants and their loved ones,” said District 1 Commissioner Kirkland Carden.

The soil collection ceremony will be the first of its kind in Gwinnett County and the only soil collection ceremony in Georgia this Saturday.

“I am honored to be included in an event of such great importance.  This is an opportunity to recognize and learn from our history, a chance to heal, and a challenge to move forward together as one community,” said Mayor David Still.  “Today’s Gwinnett County and Lawrenceville are communities of which I am proud to be a part, and I look forward to our continued work in the city of Lawrenceville to promote open dialogue among diverse groups and to seek solutions for racial and social injustice and other complex topics.”

Between the years 1877 and 1950, there were 4,000 racially-motivated lynchings across the 12 southern states and at least 594 lynchings in the state of Georgia alone.

“Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, ‘We are not makers of history. We are made by history,’” said Gwinnett Historical and Preservation Board Chairwoman Marlene Taylor-Crawford. “Our shared responsibility is to educate ourselves on the history that made us, including lynchings such as that of Mr. Charles Hale in Gwinnett County in the city of Lawrenceville. We must first acknowledge these past atrocities in their entirety, unadulterated, and fully understand our nation's history if we are to ever move toward reconciliation and prevent racial violence and injustice from continuing to manifest itself today. 

Immediately following the soil collection ceremony, a family-friendly Juneteenth Celebration will be held at Rhodes-Jordan Park from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m.