CARLA STETSON

In 1920 three young black men were lynched in the northern city of Duluth, Minnesota. Eighty years later the Clayton Jackson McGhie Memorial project was conceived as a way to remember these men, to pause and reflect on these unspeakable events, and look forward towards a just and equitable future. A. P. Porter, an African American writer, then living in Minneapolis, and I proposed a memorial in the form of a small park with walls of quotations and sculptures representing the three men. Our proposal was accepted in 2001 and completed in 2003 near the site of the actual murders. We collaborated because we believed that writing and visual languages combined would be most effective in coming to terms with the complex nature of this event.