On March 16, the Indiana Remembrance Coalition and EJI gathered with members of the Marion County community to dedicate a historical marker commemorating the racial terror lynching of George Tompkins in 1922.
The marker sits in the Memorial Grove section of Indianapolis’s Municipal Gardens—the site where 19-year-old George Tompkins was lynched almost exactly 100 years ago.
The Indiana Remembrance Coalition was formed by a group of community-minded individuals dedicated to addressing the history of lynching and racial injustice in Indiana. Through forming the coalition, they hoped to start a process of healing for the communities and individuals affected by racial terror lynchings.
The marker installation was the result of a collaborative effort between the coalition and EJI’s Community Remembrance Project.
The marker dedication ceremony included coalition members Karen Christensen and Leon Bates as well as Judith Thomas, deputy mayor of Indianapolis, Alfie McGinty, coroner of Marion County, Joseph Tucker Edmonds, associate professor of Africana and Religious Studies at Indiana University, Indianapolis, and Jeremy Kranowitz, CEO of Keep Indianapolis Beautiful. The speakers widely noted the importance of memorializing Mr. Tompkins’s death and speaking the truth about the events surrounding his murder.
“Healing begins with an honest reckoning of this past,” said EJI’s Stephanie Wylie at the dedication.
“I just hope it’s an eye-opening experience for whoever reads it. This is about reading a whole story and realizing that what our history is, is not always what we’ve been taught,” said Leon Bates, a historian with the Indiana Remembrance Coalition.
“George Tompkins deserved better,” stated Alife McGinty, the Marion County coroner. “And while we cannot change the past, we can assure that his name is spoken and his story is remembered and his legacy will endure.”
The Lynching of George Tompkins
On March 16, 1922, 19-year-old George Tompkins was brutally lynched and his body left inside what was then known as Riverside Park.
Mr. Tompkins worked at a glass factory and had moved to the city of Indianapolis from Frankfort, Kentucky, only two years before his death. His body was found that afternoon in a wooded area of the park leaned against a small sapling. He had a rope around his neck, which was tied to the branches above.
Local media reports noted that the Marion County coroner, who saw the body soon after the police reported it, said, “There could be no question that the man had been murdered and his body then tied to the tree.” He said that Mr. Tompkins was “dead or almost dead when he was hanged.” He believed Mr. Tompkins had been strangled and that his attackers had bound his hands and dragged him to the sapling—leaving his body as a “warning” to other Black community members, according to a local newspaper.
Despite these findings, Mr. Tompkins’s death certificate listed the cause of death as “suicide.” And police refused to launch an investigation into his killing.
On the 100th anniversary of Mr. Tompkins’s lynching, the Marion County coroner reexamined the case at the request of the Indiana Remembrance Coalition, and after reviewing the evidence, issued a revised finding that Mr. Tompkins had been murdered.
Lynching in America
Thousands of Black people were the victims of racial terror lynchings in the U.S. between 1865 and 1950. During this era, lynching emerged as the most notorious and public form of racial terrorism, used to enforce racial hierarchy and segregation.
While most lynchings occurred in the South, millions of Black Americans who attempted to flee the South’s racial terrorism and segregation by relocating to the Northeast, Midwest, and West did not escape the burden of racial prejudice and remained in danger of mob violence even outside the South.
Racial terror lynchings were intended to intimidate Black people and used to uphold racial hierarchy. Lynchings that occurred outside the South featured many of the same traits as Southern lynchings—which often went beyond hanging and included death by beating, drowning, and other brutal means.
Although many victims remain unknown, George Tompkins is one of more than 25 documented victims of racial terror lynching killed in Indiana between 1865 and 1950, including two who were killed in Marion County.
Community Remembrance Project
EJI’s Community Remembrance Project is part of our campaign to honor lynching victims by collecting soil from lynching sites, erecting historical markers, and creating the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, which acknowledges the atrocities of racial injustice.
EJI is joining with communities to install historical markers in places where documented racial terror lynchings occurred, as part of its effort to help towns, cities, and states to confront and recover from tragic legacies of racial violence and terrorism.
By facing the truth of the racial violence that shaped our communities, EJI believes that community members can begin the necessary dialogue that will advance truth and healing and start the process towards reconciliation.