When Lynching Occurred in Milwaukee

Expand

Tyrone Randle Jr.

Tyrone Randle Jr.

Tyrone Randle Jr. is an activist and artist who recently led the initiative to uncover the grave of George Marshall Clark, who died in 1861 and is Milwaukee’s only documented lynching victim. Clark was a Black barber who was murdered by an Irish mob after he and his friend were socializing with white women on the street, after which he was arrested and then violently dragged from his jail cell. His murder reflected the pervasive racism that existed during the Civil War era not only in the South but the North as well. Clark was properly memorialized with a headstone 160 years later.

Randle learned about Clark while working on an independent study as a student at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design (MIAD), he explains.

“There weren’t really any courses that studied Black history or Black art, so I found out about him through doing my own research, and that was in 2015.”

He began looking for Clark’s grave after an incident during the 2020 George Floyd uprisings where he was beaten by the cops and hit by a car; he was subsequently hospitalized.

“My injuries didn’t allow me to continue protesting and I had to take some time away from the movement, which messed with my mental health—especially when it felt like it was go time. I returned to my studies, which was another way for me to go about making an impact in the movement. I thought about James Baldwin and how he wasn’t necessarily out there actively with his body, but he would write and use his voice in a different way to bring about change. We organized a march in George Marshall Clark’s honor, but we felt that it was also important to pay our respects to him as an individual, so we went looking for the gravesite. In doing so, we found out that there was no headstone … it took us two days to even locate him.”

Searching in the Cemetery

Clark is buried in Forest Home Cemetery on Milwaukee’s South Side. 

Expand

Tyrone Randall Jr. in Forest Home Cemetery

Tyrone Randall Jr. in Forest Home Cemetery

Randle continued, “My partner in this work Aadya Wynter did a quick Google search and it was actually really simple to find which cemetery it was. But when we got there, we were scratching off pieces of paper over eroded headstones to see if we could get a positive for the name—to no avail. I asked one of the groundskeepers about Marshall’s plot and he took interest in it, so he came out and walked foot over foot for measurement to locate the actual spot Clark was buried. Interestingly enough, we were hovering over Marshall the whole time.”

With the help of crowdfunding, they were able to get the headstone made.

“Thank God that the Milwaukee community felt that this was an important story,” Randle said. “There’s a lot of stuff that comes out of the woodwork in this city that got swept under the rug. I thought about how Joshua Glover—who survived a lynching—has a plaque and is commemorated here, which is a great thing. But someone who actually died from it doesn’t, and a lot of people are starting to see that and are rectifying what’s been getting swept away. It’s not like it wasn’t common knowledge to some degree in certain groups of people, especially historians.”

Several marches in honor of George Marshall Clark were organized in 2020 and 2021 to make noise about the subject. Milwaukee Independent was the first publication to really pick up the story and help raise public awareness about it. The official ceremony was on September 8, 2021—the anniversary of when Clark was actually buried.

“It’s very likely that his family didn’t even get to see him buried due to the circumstances,” Randle continued. “They actually fled the city after it happened and his grave didn’t get marked. So, we gave him a formal resting ceremony. It was important to remember him for the person that he was and not just as a victim; he’s a piece of Milwaukee history and he has a story of importance.”

Randle reflects on what George Marshall Clark’s story can teach us in a modern context.

“The past always informs the present, and the present informs the future. The past informs how we think about now and how we’re going to think about later. Without this truth being revealed and acknowledged and rectified, how can we hope to have a progressive mind about things? We have to be honest about it. There’s people to this day that are being lynched; they may not look the same … like they’re not using a noose anymore to hang people … but I could be considered a survivor of a modern-day lynching, like Joshua Glover in my own right. These things are still happening and being covered up, and that’s the biggest takeaway.”

Since honoring Clark, Randle has been working on locating other graves. He located a second person, Martin Smith, who was one of the first Black caucus members that helped change laws in Milwaukee; he also helped Joshua Glover escape via the Underground Railroad. Smith was murdered at the hands of his white wife’s brother and nephew.

On his injuries, Randle said, “Physically I’m better, but I still have injuries that I’ll probably have forever. My hip is still twisted so I do walk with a cane from time to time; I don’t need it every day, but certain days are harder than others. But at least I’m walking. I broke three ribs, both sides of my pelvis, and my lower spine so I should not be walking. Mentally, I think I’ve been healing through the work I’ve been doing. I think that remaining diligent is what helped my body heal as quickly as it did.”

To help Tyrone Randle raise funds for Martin Smith’s headstone, visit his GoFundMe here.