After 89 years, a man lynched in St. Joseph gets a headstone
Dec. 2—Almost nine decades after a 19-year-old Black man was lynched at the hands of an angry mob of St. Joseph residents, a local group has been able to mark his final resting place.
Just before the anniversary of his death, a headstone was finally placed at the grave of Lloyd Warner, an Elwood, Kansas, man who was killed at the hands of thousands of people outside of the Buchanan County Courthouse on Nov. 28, 1933.
The Lloyd Warner Community Coalition has been working for at least two years to locate and place a headstone at the site of Warner's grave. Last week, just in time for the anniversary of his death, a headstone was able to be set to mark his resting place at Sunbridge Cemetery.
"He's gone all these 89 years without any kind of marker or anything on his grave," said Sharon Kosek, a member of the coalition. "The whole entire community coalition felt this was such an important thing for him because a) just to find his grave, and b) to have people give donations from what they have, which they have generously to pay for his headstone."
Warner was held in jail for two days following accusations that he assaulted a white woman. A group of angry citizens convened in front of the jail, and the group quickly grew in numbers.
"Word got around town that he was in the jail, so people became more and more angry," Kosek said. "First there was about a thousand people, there were estimates of perhaps 7,000 to 10,000 people. But there was a large crowd that gathered, they demanded that he be released from the jail."
The sheriff at the time released Warner to the masses, as he believed it would save the rest of the prisoners and diffuse the situation. After being lynched in a tree across from the courthouse, Warner's body was burned. Warner's mother did not want to see his body after the horrific actions of the townspeople, so he was buried without any recognition or funeral.
"As a mother, as would other mothers, if something like this happened to your child, their life taken away from them with no trial, no kind of legal process whatsoever, you want that person to be recognized," Kosek said. "So it is so important that he be given this respect, to have a headstone."
The coalition made up of local businesses, churches, organizations and individuals feels strongly that Warner's story should be heard and shared to avoid history from being repeated.
"It just it's just a matter of respect that he is finally acknowledged after 89 years which is a very lengthy period of time," Kosek said. "We want people to learn from past history and not have this happen again. This is part of our history."
The coalition is in the process of designing and getting approval for a plaque to be placed in town in Warner's memory to educate the community. On one side, Warner's history would be shared. The other would tell about the history of lynching across America. No location has been chosen for the site of the plaque.
Stef Manchen can be reached at stef.manchen@newspressnow.com.
