In Memoriam 2024: Joseph McCoy April 23, 1897
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The 2024 Remembrance
![McCoy wreath close-up with ribbon "Joseph McCoy April 23, 1897" (2021)](/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/2021-11/McCoy-Wreath-Closeup-Hancock-Photography-2021.jpg?itok=qdY5ErO2)
The Alexandria Community Remembrance Project (ACRP) invited the public to commemorative events to mark the 127th year since Joseph McCoy was brutally lynched.
Also view the earlier Memorial pages, from 2020 through 2023.
Joseph McCoy Remembrance Walk
![history map showing grid layout of southern Old Town Alexandria with 12 points of interest overlayed](/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/2024-04/McCoyWalkMap.jpg?itok=2WERLKIw)
The Alexandria Community Remembrance Project marked the places in this city that were important to the story of the life and death of Joseph McCoy, an 18-year-old native Alexandrian accused of a crime and killed by a mob on April 23, 1897. The purple signs alerted passersby to Joseph McCoy’s existence and the role his life and death played in our shared history. The Remembrance Walk remains available on this website.
We hope that residents and visitors will step into the past and explore the crooked path that traces Joseph McCoy’s last hours. By walking the streets and noting the places where he lived, worked and was likely arrested, we remember a difficult part of Alexandria’s story.
Illumination of Sites of Significance
!["Remembering Joseph McCoy, Lynched in Alexandria, April 23, 1897" projected on City Hall](/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/2022-04/McCoy-Illumination-Projected-Words-2021.jpg?itok=Nuop0j84)
City Hall, the old Station House Door of City Hall on N. Fairfax Street, the lynching location on N. Lee Street, and the George Washington Masonic Memorial will be illuminated in purple, the color of mourning, throughout the weekend to provide belated accountability, reconciliation, honor, and respect for McCoy.
The Lynching of Joseph H. McCoy: A Narrative
![Map of the events of April 23, 1897](/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/2021-11/McCoy-Map-1897.jpg?itok=eJsixAqI)
The full account of this hate crime was methodically researched in 2020 by the 13-member Research Committee of the Alexandria Community Remembrance Project.
The Lynching of Joseph H. McCoy, April 23, 1897
In the News
'Hanged by a Mob.' City marks 127th anniversary of McCoy lynching . Jeanne Theismann, Alexandria Gazette Packet, April 24, 2024.
We appreciate the Alexandria Gazette's report on the McCoy Remembrance events, but would like to clarify that Annie Lacy, was eight not nine years-old, when it was alleged Joseph McCoy assaulted her; and at the Remembrance Ceremony on April 23, 2024, Kim Young spoke on behalf of Rev. Franklin of Roberts Memorial United Methodist Church.
Stepping up by stepping into the past , Out of the Attic, Alexandria Times, April 18, 2024.
Photo Gallery
Below are some images of the 2024 McCoy Remembrance
![McCoy Remembrance. Cellist Tim Thulson and podium](/sites/default/files/styles/gallery_item/public/2024-05/mccoy-remembrance-2024-008.jpg?itok=pvoXM8pW)
![Penny Hill Cemetery sign](/sites/default/files/styles/gallery_thumbnail/public/2024-05/mccoy-remembrance-2024-011.jpg?itok=lhUC9HHC)
![The Joseph McCoy wreath](/sites/default/files/styles/gallery_thumbnail/public/2024-05/mccoy-remembrance-2024-014.jpg?itok=S_sdctGz)
![MacArthur Myers leading the procession](/sites/default/files/styles/gallery_thumbnail/public/2024-05/mccoy-remembrance-2024-047.jpg?itok=l1h79BBd)
![MacArthur Myers leading the procession](/sites/default/files/styles/gallery_thumbnail/public/2024-05/mccoy-remembrance-2024-050.jpg?itok=azn5bEDE)
![MacArthur Myers leading the procession](/sites/default/files/styles/gallery_thumbnail/public/2024-05/mccoy-remembrance-2024-059.jpg?itok=N833l7Sl)
![Mayor Justin Wilson](/sites/default/files/styles/gallery_thumbnail/public/2024-05/mccoy-remembrance-2024-100.jpg?itok=DCyhueYx)
![View of the ceremony](/sites/default/files/styles/gallery_thumbnail/public/2024-05/mccoy-remembrance-2024-104.jpg?itok=cA3qRgWA)
![Audrey Davis speaking](/sites/default/files/styles/gallery_thumbnail/public/2024-05/mccoy-remembrance-2024-110.jpg?itok=ElcV2KtQ)
![Sheriff Sean Casey](/sites/default/files/styles/gallery_thumbnail/public/2024-05/mccoy-remembrance-2024-133.jpg?itok=R4WfwhDL)
![Rose Dawson, Director of the Alexandria Library](/sites/default/files/styles/gallery_thumbnail/public/2024-05/mccoy-remembrance-2024-154.jpg?itok=XSVMqhAi)
![Cellist Tim Thulson](/sites/default/files/styles/gallery_thumbnail/public/2024-05/mccoy-remembrance-2024-156.jpg?itok=9zXHjC36)
![Kimberly Young, representing Roberts Memorial Methodist Church](/sites/default/files/styles/gallery_thumbnail/public/2024-05/mccoy-remembrance-2024-173.jpg?itok=NY0fi3jl)
![The remembrance ceremony with audience](/sites/default/files/styles/gallery_thumbnail/public/2024-05/mccoy-remembrance-2024-178.jpg?itok=dB4Eroeb)
![McCoy Descendant Debra White](/sites/default/files/styles/gallery_thumbnail/public/2024-05/mccoy-remembrance-2024-186.jpg?itok=lbvLMweD)
![Jean Kelleher](/sites/default/files/styles/gallery_thumbnail/public/2024-05/mccoy-remembrance-2024-203.jpg?itok=PDuWKqBt)
![City Manager James Parajon and his wife.](/sites/default/files/styles/gallery_thumbnail/public/2024-05/mccoy-remembrance-2024-212.jpg?itok=fmPECD_9)
![The remembrance ceremony with audience](/sites/default/files/styles/gallery_thumbnail/public/2024-05/mccoy-remembrance-2024-216.jpg?itok=-AjqX9nG)
![McCoy Remembrance. Cellist Tim Thulson and podium](/sites/default/files/styles/gallery_item/public/2024-05/mccoy-remembrance-2024-008.jpg?itok=pvoXM8pW)
![Penny Hill Cemetery sign](/sites/default/files/styles/gallery_item/public/2024-05/mccoy-remembrance-2024-011.jpg?itok=GrmqOQ5X)
![The Joseph McCoy wreath](/sites/default/files/styles/gallery_item/public/2024-05/mccoy-remembrance-2024-014.jpg?itok=f8TSwYHL)
![MacArthur Myers leading the procession](/sites/default/files/styles/gallery_item/public/2024-05/mccoy-remembrance-2024-047.jpg?itok=Pviw3VrG)
![MacArthur Myers leading the procession](/sites/default/files/styles/gallery_item/public/2024-05/mccoy-remembrance-2024-050.jpg?itok=G_pbPeZO)
![MacArthur Myers leading the procession](/sites/default/files/styles/gallery_item/public/2024-05/mccoy-remembrance-2024-059.jpg?itok=Mw3Pc0Yq)
![Mayor Justin Wilson](/sites/default/files/styles/gallery_item/public/2024-05/mccoy-remembrance-2024-100.jpg?itok=ofH3jvHE)
![View of the ceremony](/sites/default/files/styles/gallery_item/public/2024-05/mccoy-remembrance-2024-104.jpg?itok=5ZxNQBbB)
![Audrey Davis speaking](/sites/default/files/styles/gallery_item/public/2024-05/mccoy-remembrance-2024-110.jpg?itok=A2cMwahx)
![Sheriff Sean Casey](/sites/default/files/styles/gallery_item/public/2024-05/mccoy-remembrance-2024-133.jpg?itok=kBDiK74U)
![Rose Dawson, Director of the Alexandria Library](/sites/default/files/styles/gallery_item/public/2024-05/mccoy-remembrance-2024-154.jpg?itok=wWl09t4Y)
![Cellist Tim Thulson](/sites/default/files/styles/gallery_item/public/2024-05/mccoy-remembrance-2024-156.jpg?itok=109ZPnsH)
![Kimberly Young, representing Roberts Memorial Methodist Church](/sites/default/files/styles/gallery_item/public/2024-05/mccoy-remembrance-2024-173.jpg?itok=FA1QUYbi)
![The remembrance ceremony with audience](/sites/default/files/styles/gallery_item/public/2024-05/mccoy-remembrance-2024-178.jpg?itok=NfjqtlHD)
![McCoy Descendant Debra White](/sites/default/files/styles/gallery_item/public/2024-05/mccoy-remembrance-2024-186.jpg?itok=6utIj2M1)
![Jean Kelleher](/sites/default/files/styles/gallery_item/public/2024-05/mccoy-remembrance-2024-203.jpg?itok=lwN9lqBv)
![City Manager James Parajon and his wife.](/sites/default/files/styles/gallery_item/public/2024-05/mccoy-remembrance-2024-212.jpg?itok=1EOtcb-9)
![The remembrance ceremony with audience](/sites/default/files/styles/gallery_item/public/2024-05/mccoy-remembrance-2024-216.jpg?itok=n5uEhJA3)
Alexandria Community Remembrance Project (ACRP)
ACRP is a city-wide initiative dedicated to helping Alexandria understand its history of racial terror hate crimes. ACRP conducts research, education, programs, and events that remember Joseph McCoy and Benjamin Thomas and explores the long-term impacts upon Alexandria’s African American community. The work of ACRP is an effort to establish a welcoming community bound by equity and inclusion for all people.
Benjamin Thomas and Joseph McCoy are the only two documented Alexandria lynchings so far. McCoy was lynched on April 23, 1897. This year is the 125th anniversary of that event. It was commemorated on that date.