For Immediate Release: August 8, 2022 

The Alexandria Community Remembrance Project (ACRP) invites residents to participate in events this fall to reflect upon and memorialize the lives of lynching victims Joseph McCoy (1897) and Benjamin Thomas (1899), while also acknowledging and engaging with this difficult past. The ACRP will hold a soil collection ceremony on September 24 to collect soil representing the lives of both young men. The ACRP will then hold a pilgrimage, from October 6-10, to deliver the soil to the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama. 

The ACRP is a city-wide initiative dedicated to helping Alexandria understand its history of racial terror hate crimes and to working towards creating a welcoming community bound by equity and inclusion. This project, managed by the Office of Historic Alexandria, partners with the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama. This national nonprofit was started by “Just Mercy” author and attorney Bryan Stevenson.  

Stevenson also established the National Memorial for Peace and Justice. The memorial consists of 800 hanging steel pillars representing the more than 4,000 documented Black American lynching victims. Jurisdictions are invited to participate in EJI’s Community Remembrance Project by continuing to research their lynching history, offering educational programs, holding a soil collection, erecting interpretive markers, offering an essay contest, and making a community pilgrimage to EJI. Jurisdictions are encouraged to participate in EJI’s program to “claim” their lynching pillar as a permanent memorial in their community. To date, EJI has not released any pillars to partnering communities. 

The Alexandria Community Remembrance Project (ACRP) was formally organized and launched by City Council in 2019. Since then, more than 300 volunteers have supported the work of the ACRP. Volunteers have researched and published the history of the two documented lynchings, developed historic markers that are posted near the places where each young man was lynched, held remembrance ceremonies for McCoy and Thomas, and provided lectures and educational events. The work of confronting this past continued virtually throughout the pandemic. Beginning in 2020, the ACRP held its first in-person remembrance for Joseph McCoy and Benjamin Thomas. This August 8th, the remembrance for Benjamin Thomas will also include recognition of the Black men who tried to protect him on August 7 and 8, 1899.  

On September 24 the ACRP will hold a Soil Collection Ceremony for both McCoy and Thomas at Market Square at 4 p.m. At this event, participants will have the opportunity to add soil representing the lives of both young men to specially made jars by EJI bearing their names.  

Then, as a community, participants will travel with this sacred soil to Montgomery, Alabama and deliver the jars to their final resting place at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice. This Pilgrimage will take place from October 6-10 and will focus on the history and legacy of racial terror in this country, as well as the struggle for social justice. Participants will also tour civil rights sites in both Montgomery and Selma and hear first- hand accounts from civil rights activists from these communities. 

The ACRP pilgrimage includes chartered buses, discounted hotel stays, curated social justice tours, most meals, and evening programs with guest speakers. Online registration is now available to until slots are filled.  

To learn more about Joseph McCoy and Benjamin Thomas, sign up for the newsletter, or join a committee, visit the ACRP web page. 

Visit alexandriava.gov/Historic for more information. 

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 news release is available at alexandriava.gov/go/3869.