"Holding on to Those Who Can't be Held": Reenacting a Lynching at Moore's Ford, Georgia

Document Type

Article

Department or Administrative Unit

Anthropology and Museum Studies

Publication Date

11-8-2010

Abstract

Each year since 2005, a group of multiracial activists has reenacted a lynching at Moore’s Ford in rural Georgia in which four young African Americans were murdered in 1946. The stated purpose of the reenactment is to campaign for prosecution of surviving perpetrators and more broadly to call attention to the long national history of violence against persons of color. At more nuanced levels the annual performance speaks to relations between generations, and between the living and the dead. As a ritual enacted by local people, each performance bridges experiences of racial violence and injustice while raising the promise of reconciliation.

Journal

Southern Spaces

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