Historical marker recognizing lynchings stolen from DeKalb County park

Audrey Washington
·1 min read

Local activists are promising to replace a historical marker that was stolen from a Lithonia park.

The marker honored victims of the Lithonia Lynchings, which began in 1877.

“After Reconstruction was abandoned in 1877, White mobs in Lithonia terrorized the Black community through lynchings that denied Black people their rights and equal protection under the law. On July 27, 1877, a White mob from Lithonia lynched Rueben Hudson near the Georgia Railroad stop in Redan,” the marker reads.

It goes on to say that five years later, another mob chased two Black men and it was “generally understood that they were lynched.”

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“They stole our history,” Donnetta Smith with The DeKalb Remembrance Project told Channel 2′s Audrey Washington.

She says the sign is so much for than a marker.

“Honor these people. Recognize these people because they never got justice while they were alive,” Smith said.

Smith and other community members were shocked when they stopped by Kelly Park and found the historical marker gone.

“First, I was speechless. Then, I got mad,” Smith described.

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Lithonia police believe someone stole the marker about a week ago and, because of its size and weight, that they used a car to get away with it.

“Black History Month, what a coincidence that our marker goes missing,” DeKalb County NAACP President Edwina Clayton said.

The DeKalb Remembrance Project worked with the Equal Justice Initiative Coalition to get the marker.

The project’s goal is to memorialize documented victims of racial violence throughout history.

“Whoever took this marker should be ashamed,” Smith said.

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