A dedication ceremony for a public memorial to victims of racial violence was held Tuesday in Dallas.
Shadow Lines, which is in Martyrs Park in downtown Dallas, sits at the site where three enslaved Black men — Patrick Jenning, the Rev. Samuel Smith and Cato Miller — were lynched in 1860 after being wrongfully accused of starting a slave revolt.
The city has been working with the historical organization Remembering Black Dallas and the Dallas County Justice Initiative on the installation since 2020 to leave a permanent reminder of one of Dallas’ darkest moments.
“Once you get into that space where the lynching victims are commemorated, it’s just silence,” DCJI President Ed Gray said at the dedication ceremony held at the Sixth Floor Museum. “And in the silence, you can get in the moment.”
Gray has helped Remembering Black Dallas put up markers all over the city to honor the lives that were lost to racial violence. He said not only does the work bring the city together, but it’s in itself a modern representation of overcoming fear.
“Black history is Black history, but it is white history as well,” he said. “It is American history.”
RE:site Studio artists Norman Lee and Shane Allbritton were selected to create the large steel installation. They modeled Shadow Lines after a sundial, casting a long shadow over the names of each victim of racially motivated violence.
“As if the shadow itself cut into the steel, indelibly etching the memory of each victim forever in the heart of the city,” Lee said.
The installation bears the names of people killed by racial violence in Dallas County between 1853 and 1920 – names such as Jane Elkins, a rape victim accused of murder, and William Allen Taylor, who was lynched in 1884.
Remembering Black Dallas said it plans to install at least 10 markers throughout the city this year, including two more in Martyrs Park.
“We’ve had many souls that have been lost throughout America through racial terror,” Gray said. “But as we come to grips with racial terror, we must never forget.”
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