![\"\"](\"https:\/\/news.furman.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Jones-copy-1.jpeg\")
Emma Jones ’20.<\/p><\/div>\n
In summer 2018, Jones took a research internship at Auburn University, in eastern Alabama. She worked for the school\u2019s Juvenile Delinquency Laboratory, splitting her time between the lab and a local prison.<\/p>\n
During that time, she visited The National Memorial for Peace and Justice and The Legacy Museum, both projects of the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI). The memorial commemorates documented lynchings throughout the United States. That\u2019s when she was surprised to find her own county represented in the display.<\/p>\n
EJI works with community groups to create local memorials to lynching victims and to foster conversations about race and justice. Jones decided she\u2019d help to examine Walker County.<\/p>\n
Her initial efforts with local officials didn\u2019t generate results, but her luck changed when she reached out to the Walker County Historical Society. Its president, David Boyle, connected Jones with Beverly Foster, president of the Walker County African American Historical and Alumni Association.<\/p>\n
Foster was busy compiling a family history, but Jones was persistent.<\/p>\n
\u201cFinally I said, \u2018Let me see what this little girl wants \u2013 she\u2019s about to wear me to death,\u2019\u201d says Foster, laughing.<\/p>\n
Foster sent Jones on a mission to find any existing records of White\u2019s story.<\/p>\n
Jones used old newspapers, country archives and death records to piece together what happened to White in 1916. The research showed he was found by a mob on the same day that reports had surfaced of an assault on a white woman. Later information suggested White and the woman were in a consensual relationship. Records state that White begged for a proper trial. Instead, he was hung from a tree with a log chain.<\/p>\n
‘These young people have got to take over for us’<\/strong><\/p>\n Jones represented the Walker County Remembrance Coalition when she signed a contract with EJI, which sponsored the memorial as well as several $1,000 scholarships. The scholarships will be available next year through an essay contest at the county\u2019s two public high schools.<\/p>\n Foster helped recruit eight other people to join her, Doyle and Jones on the coalition, including three other college students. She viewed the older members of the group, including herself, as mentors to the younger.<\/p>\n \u201cIn 20 years or so, we\u2019re going to retire and these young people have got to take over for us,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n The coalition focused on education and community awareness. Jones spent a lot time on foot, spreading the word in the community. The work required patience.<\/p>\n \u201cDelicate things like this you have to approach in a delicate way,\u201d says Foster. \u201cWe approached it from the standpoint of bringing the community together in a loving situation.\u201d<\/p>\n Support from all walks<\/strong><\/p>\n But it wasn\u2019t enough for Jones to have the county\u2019s Black community behind the project.<\/p>\n \u201cI really need the white people here to know this happened,\u201d she says. \u201cIf they\u2019re [members of the Black community] the only people at our ceremony, then we\u2019ve done something wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n She learned that a slower pace is worth it when it allows enough time to engage and involve a broader group.<\/p>\n \u201cI probably learned more from working with Beverly than I did from the actual technical work,\u201d says Jones. The memorial to White, and to the broader story of racial terror, was installed in LaFayette, Georgia. Jones is working now in Washington, D.C., for the Capital Fellows program, and was unable to travel for the ceremony due to COVID-19 restrictions.<\/p>\n Foster hated that Jones had to miss it.<\/p>\n \u201cShe got us moving, she got our attention,\u201d says Foster.<\/p>\n Jones\u2019s father delivered her speech on her behalf.<\/p>\n \u201cHow was I familiar with the origins of this land, the battles that occurred here, the Civil War officers esteemed and commemorated throughout this town, and yet I did not know about the man who had been lynched here without any acknowledgment of his fundamental American rights to due process?\u201d the speech read, in part.<\/p>\n On the day of the dedication, leaders from all walks of life came to remember White together.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is really important to see things and feel passionately about them \u2013 and not let it end there,\u201d says Jones. \u201cAcknowledging our history is a really big part of that, but that won\u2019t be the end, that won\u2019t be the fix for us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Emma Jones \u201920 knew she came from a place steeped in history. But she didn\u2019t know pieces of that history had been left out. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of memorials there,\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":272,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,3,48,13,30,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academic-department-page","category-alumni","category-psychology","category-top-four-news-4th-story","category-top-stories","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/272"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9092\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}