MIDWAY, Ky. — At the Sons and Daughters of Relief Cemetery, the remains of Richard W. James can be found, a Black Midway resident who was hung from a tree and murdered by a violent white mob outside the city of Versailles in 1921.
It’s a solemn anniversary to mark a tragic incident that happened in Woodford County 100-years ago. Remembrance event organizer Micah Lynn knows the story well.
"Richard James worked at a distillery in Midway, and he was accused of being part of an armed robbery that killed two guardsmen there," Lynn said. "One man refused to give him the death sentence. When that happened, it inflamed the passions of that mob."
Lynn said the mob abducted James from the jail, took him on a procession of cars down Main Street, and hanged him near the intersection of what is now Midway Road and Frankfurt Road.
A 19-year-old Kentucky State University student and Woodford County resident, Lynn brought the idea for a remembrance service to several community members after studying the extent of racial violence in Kentucky. Milan Bush, CEO of Honouring Black Stories, recognized the importance of the service.
"Today, it was very important to do, to recognize that even though this was a hundred years ago, the importance of racial justice for today," Bush said. "Recognizing that history still plays a part of the racial issues that we have today, and if we don't recognize those things, we can't reconcile and move forward as a community."
Residents from near and far gathered to reflect on the need to respond to the injustice of the past and the present, and to understand how racial violence can impact those even in small communities like those in Woodford County.
"How can we keep on getting up every day and going forward like nothing ever happened? So that's why it's important that we do this and we need to learn from it," said Larry Blackford, a local minister. "We can learn from it and grow from it, and learn how to talk about it, and acknowledge that we know we're not perfect human beings, but we were smart enough, intelligent enough to learn from our mistakes and do better."