Commentary on a commentary: A secret long kept

Here is the story of the historical marker dedication I told you about last week.

The directions took us past Edwin Waters University and the Dollar General store where racially motivated killings occurred just a few years ago. The marker dedication spot was a few blocks away. A light breeze ruffled the black cloth covering the marker. Two drummers beat an African rhythm. Everyone was quiet.

Volunteer leaders from 904ward convened the gathering. Each speaker reflected on the work that culminated in this moment. We learned that the actual site of the lynching was right across the street. Benjamin Hart was not hung from a tree, but shot multiple times in the back by men wearing false law enforcement badges.

The secret long kept was revealed during the remarks of Benjamin Hart’s granddaughter, Samelia Adams. The Community Remembrance Project dug into the history of Mr. Hart’s lynching and looked up any surviving family. They found Mrs. Adams, his granddaughter, who did not know her grandfather had been a victim of this crime. Benjamin Hart’s wife had told their young children that he had abandoned them. That message had been transmitted through the generations who were told not to be like him and to uphold their families. I took in my breath audibly when I heard this news. The news that a crime had been committed came to her just several years ago. Ms. Adams had the opportunity to share this news with her mother just before she died. She hoped that, on some level, her mother died knowing her father had indeed loved her.

I cannot fathom what prompted Benjamin Hart’s wife not to tell the story straight. I surmise that she feared that one day they would seek retribution and suffer a similar fate. There was no justice for Blacks in Florida at that time. Her reason died with her. But now, the family knows the truth and grandchildren, great and great-great grandchildren know it too and can take pride in knowing their ancestor was a caring family man, working hard to do right by them, who was unjustly accused and victimized by mob violence. How fitting that descendants had the honor of unveiling the marker. One side of it tells Benjamin Hart’s story. The other gives an overview of the history of lynching in Florida and nationwide.

Here are some thoughts from my companion to this event, Peggie Weeks:

“There are some in this country who wish this stain on our nation would just go away. It's not important to tell these stories, they say. It makes our people uncomfortable. Let's just move on. But I believe that we do need to tell the story. Stay uncomfortable. And vow that it will never happen again. Generational trauma is real. And we must never forget our history, however uncomfortable or painful.”

Here are a few remarks that were offered by Pastor John Newman who pastors The Sanctuary at Mt. Calvary, just several blocks away.

“Today, we have unveiled an historical marker. But I suggest that what we have done here today is far more significant than installing a marker. We have interrupted the silence.

We have declared that Benjamin Hart lived. That his life mattered. That what happened to him was wrong. And that 103 years later, this community has a moral responsibility to remember. Benjamin Hart was not simply the victim of an isolated act of violence. His murder was part of a pattern. A pattern that repeated itself across this nation with such frequency, and with such terrifying effectiveness, that it became an instrument of racial control.

Laws have changed. Institutions have changed. Opportunities have expanded. Barriers that once appeared immovable have been challenged and, in many cases, dismantled. We should acknowledge that progress. But we must also understand that progress did not happen because America simply woke up one morning and decided to become more just.

• Progress happened because people refused to accept injustice as normal.
• Progress happened because people remembered what others wanted forgotten.
• Progress happened because people confronted systems that others insisted were simply the way things had always been.

And the very progress we celebrate today was purchased, in part, by the courage and suffering of those who refused to remain silent yesterday.

This marker is not simply a monument to what happened here 103 years ago. It is a challenge to those of us living today.

• A challenge to tell the truth.
• A challenge to resist indifference.
• A challenge to refuse the seduction of historical amnesia.
• And a challenge to build a community in which no person’s humanity is conditional upon the approval of another.

And may it be so.