Boisy Long

[Bobby Wong]

https://books.google.com/books?id=fVoEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA276&dq=Boisy+Long&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjP3feC1vPhAhULQ60KHY_IASAQ6AEIKjAA#v=on epage&q=Boisy%20Long&f=false

https://i.imgur.com/Lh57rtg.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/FwAaeVG.jpg

[Bobby Wong]

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/13607909/george_wynneboisy_long/

https://i.imgur.com/tKH2qRq.jpg

[Bobby Wong]

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/27209474/boisy_longs_capture/

https://i.imgur.com/XU3V0zV.jpg

[Bobby Wong]

https://www.gainesville.com/news/20190427/historical-marker-denoting-newberry-lynching-of-1916-unveiled-saturday

https://i.imgur.com/5EmMyWQ.jpg

Historical marker denoting the Newberry Lynching of 1916 unveiled Saturday

By Cindy Swirko
Posted Apr 27, 2019 at 6:07 PM

In a quiet pocket of Jonesville, down some shady dirt roads not far from where slaves once picked cotton at Dudley Plantation, perhaps the most egregious case of crime and misjustice in Alachua County?s history was memorialized Saturday more than 100 years after a mob of whites lynched several blacks.

Descendants of the Newberry Six gathered at Pleasant Plain United Methodist Church with historians, local government officials and those who wanted to honor the dead for the unveiling of an educational marker on church grounds.

?If you don?t teach the children, history has a way of repeating itself. We have to put up stones and markers for people to remember,? said Rev. Willie Mayberry, who is descended from two of the victims. ?People were afraid to utter, afraid to talk. Even our generation is afraid to talk about what happened in 1916. May we come today bold, and stand forward, and say time is up ? we must tell the story.?

Historical accounts say the killings began when Boisy Long was accused of stealing some hogs. Constable S.G. Long and Dr. L.G. Harris tried to arrest Long but he allegedly fired at both men, fatally wounding Harris, and then fled.

Killed later were James Dennis, Bert and Mary Dennis, Stella Long, Josh Baskin and Andrew McHenry.

They were believed to have helped Boisy Long flee. On Aug. 19, James Dennis was fatally shot. Bert and Mary Dennis, Stella Young, Baskin and McHenry were jailed and then lynched after a mob got them out of the town jail.

Boisy Long was later apprehended and convicted of murder. He was executed Oct. 27, 1916.

While descendants in Jonesville and Newberry have quietly passed the story on, it took research by historian Patricia Hilliard-Nunn ? a lecturer in African-American studies at the University of Florida ? to piece together what happened and raise public awareness of it.

Hilliard-Nunn believes more people were lynched in the Newberry area. Florida at one time had the highest rate of lynchings in the U.S., and Alachua County was second only to Marion County in hangings, she said.

Speakers said the ugly history of slavery and lynching has been ignored. Dudley Plantation, for instance, is now Dudley Farm State Historic Park. A history of the park on its website does not mention slavery.

Speaker Warren Lee is descended from the Dennis family of lynching victims. Lee praised the installation of the marker but said more needs to be done.

Schools in Newberry that Lee attended never taught about the lynchings, Lee said, adding that county schools should teach the dark side of the county?s history.

Lee also wanted to humanize those killed.

?History will never tell us that Boisy Long, Jim Dennis, Bert Dennis, Andrew McHenry and Pastor Josh Baskin were great fathers, great husbands, family men ? but I want to tell you that. History won?t tell us that Mary Dennis and Stella Young were great wives, they were somebody?s daughters,? Lee said. ?History won?t say that even today, we are expected to forget what happened ... I ask of you, why is it that history won?t tell us? I don?t have an answer yet, but I will.?

Newberry residents and the city government have started a reconciliation process in which the history of lynching is being acknowledged. It can be painful for descendants of both the lynched and the people who hung them, which included elected officials and law enforcement officers.

Mayor Jordan Marlowe read a city proclamation that will be placed in the church that states lynchings were immoral and were used to terrorize blacks. The proclamation apologizes for them.

?The truth is, I am sorry. We are here to recognize that six people were murdered ? murdered without trials, murdered without justice, murdered without compassion. And I am sorry that we as a society failed them,? Marlowe said before reading the proclamation. ?They deserve, their memory deserves, their descendants deserve an apology. So I stand before you today, as God as my witness, to say that I am sorry.?

[limitthis]

Good Times

https://pmcdeadline2.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/good-times.jpg?w=450&h=253&crop=1