The City of Alexandria invites the community to join in the remembrance of Joseph McCoy, a Black teenage resident who was killed by a lynch mob at the corner of Lee and Cameron streets on April 23, 1897. There will be several opportunities to recognize and observe this tragedy while honoring Mr. McCoy’s memory on Saturday, April 22, and Sunday, April 23, 2023.
April 22 In Remembrance of Joseph McCoy
Restorative or Transformational Justice? What is Justice?
Charles Houston Recreation Center Gymnasium
11 a.m., Free
All are invited to attend a community meeting on Transformational Justice Saturday, April 22, at 11 a.m. at the Charles Houston Recreation Center gymnasium (on the 900 block of Wythe). At this remembrance event, Bilqis Wilkerson, Managing Director at the Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center at Howard University will define what restorative or transformational justice means. Her presentation explores how communities can address the historic wrongs of enslavement, lynching, segregation, and mass incarceration in a positive way that brings justice, healing, and transformation. Please join the conversation as a member of the ACRP and consider how to reckon with racial terror events in Alexandria’s past.
April 23 Joseph McCoy Remembrance Wreath Laying
Fairfax Street Side of Market Square
2 p.m. (gather at 1:45 p.m.), Free
On Sunday, April 23 at 2 p.m. community members will remember the 1897 racial terror lynching of Joseph McCoy with a procession from the doors of the old police station at City Hall where he was kidnapped by a white mob to the corner of Cameron and Lee Streets where he was lynched. The remembrance will conclude with a wreath-laying. All are encouraged to join the ceremony by gathering on the Fairfax side of City Hall at 1:45 p.m.
April 21-23
In Memoriam: Illumination of Sites of Significance
The community is encouraged to visit the Alexandria Community Remembrance Project webpage to learn more about Joseph McCoy. 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.
McCoy’s death was one of two documented lynchings in Alexandria, out of 11 that occurred in Northern Virginia, and among the 100 documented lynchings that occurred in the Commonwealth between 1882 and 1968.
The Alexandria Community Remembrance Project (ACRP) is a citywide initiative dedicated to helping Alexandrians understand its history of racial hate crimes. ACRP conducts research, education, programs, and events that remember McCoy and our other lynching victim, Benjamin Thomas. It explores the long-term impact of such events on Alexandria’s African American community. ACRP works with the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) Community Remembrance Project.
Visit alexandriava.gov/Historic for more information about the Remembrance Project, upcoming programming, and the history of lynching in Alexandria, and to sign up for the monthly newsletter.
For inquiries from the news media only, contact the Office of Communications & Public Information at newsroom@alexandriava.gov or 703.746.3969.
For reasonable disability accommodation, contact Nicole.Quinn@alexandriava.gov or 703.746.4554, Virginia Relay 711.
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This release is available at alexandriava.gov/go/4527.