Skip to main content

Deterred but not Defeated grave marker dedication

 Collection — Box: VHS
Identifier: S4513

Scope and Contents

The collection consists of one videotape. Bob Baldwin of the local chapter of the NAACP officiated at the dedication and arranged for the proceedings to be taped. The video, entitled Deterred but not Defeated, contains a documentary filmed at Park Hill Cemetery where stones were placed to acknowledge the victims of the 1920 lynchings in Duluth. The color video was produced in 1991. It includes television coverage from WCCO (Minneapolis) and Duluth news broadcasts.

Dates

  • 1991

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

Open for use in the Kathryn A. Martin Library, Archives and Special Collections.

Conditions Governing Use

This collection may be protected by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U.S. Code). It is the user's responsibility to verify copyright ownership and to obtain all necessary permissions prior to the reproduction, publication, or other use of any portion of these materials. Researchers may quote from the collection under the fair use provision of the copyright law.

Biographical / Historical

On June 15, 1920, police arrest several young black men accused of raping a white woman. That evening, three of them – Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson, and Isaac McGhie – are taken from jail by a mob and lynched. It was the John Robinson Circus that brought Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson, and Isaac McGhie to Duluth. They and other young black men were employed by the circus as cooks and “roustabouts,” laborers who performed a variety of physical tasks. On the warm summer night of June 14, Irene Tusken, age nineteen, and James Sullivan, eighteen, went to the circus in Duluth. At the end of the evening the pair walked to the rear of the main tent. Nobody is sure of what happened next, but in the early morning of June 15th, Duluth Police Chief John Murphy received a call from James Sullivan’s father saying six black circus workers had held the pair at gunpoint and then raped Irene Tusken. Little evidence would be found to corroborate these claims. An examination of Tusken that morning by Dr. David Graham, a family physician, showed no physical signs of rape or assault. Six blacks were immediately arrested by the Duluth Police and held in the Duluth city jail, located inside the police station on the corner of Second Avenue and Superior Street. Already reported in the local newspaper, news of the alleged rape spread rapidly. That evening a white mob estimated between 1,000 and 10,000 people gathered on Superior Street outside the police station. They met little resistance from the police, who had been ordered not to use their guns. Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson, and Isaac McGhie – are taken from jail by a mob and lynched. The lynchings made headlines in newspapers throughout the country. Many were shocked such an atrocity happened in Minnesota, a northern state. Many citizens of Duluth were similarly outraged. Not everyone expressed regret. Despite lacking evidence, some believed Irene Tusken was raped and that the three victims, although never tried in court, were guilty and deserving of their fate.

The video documents memorial initiatives in the 1990s surrounding the 1920 lynching victims falsely charged with the rape of a white woman. In an effort led by Craig Grau, a political science professor at the University of Minnesota Duluth, the unmarked graves in Park Hill Cemetery of McGhie, Jackson and Clayton could be corrected. Grau, members of First Lutheran Church, NAACP and Bob Baldwin, plus other area citizens established a fund for markers, held a ceremony to place the gravestones, and used the remaining money to establish a small scholarship fund at UMD in the victims’ names. Because of his part in this effort, Professor Grau was later invited to witness the ceremonial naming of an overpass in Topeka, Kansas, in memory of Elmer Jackson, the only victim whose life history has been discovered with any completeness. The NAACP chapter was formed in Duluth almost immediately following the lynchings of June 15, 1920.

Extent

1.00 Linear Feet

Language of Materials

English

Abstract

The collection consists of one videotape. Bob Baldwin of the local chapter of the NAACP officiated at the dedication and arranged for the proceedings to be taped. The video, entitled Deterred but not Defeated, contains a documentary filmed at Park Hill Cemetery where stones were placed to acknowledge the victims of the 1920 lynchings in Duluth.

Physical Location

This collection is located at the University of Minnesota Duluth Archives. For more information about this collection or to make an appointment, contact us at libarchives@d.umn.edu or 218-726-8526.

General

This collection is part of the Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections, which are housed in the University of Minnesota Duluth Archives at the Kathryn A. Martin Library.

Title
Guide to the Deterred but not Defeated grave marker dedication
Author
Finding Aid Authors: P. Maus.
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

Collecting Area Details

Contact The University of Minnesota Duluth Archives and Special Collections Collecting Area

Contact:
Kathryn A. Martin Library
University of Minnesota Duluth
416 Library Drive
Duluth MN 55812-3001
(218) 726-8526