By SALINA POST
This year's Juneteenth weekend will have special meaning in Salina.
On June 18, the Dana Adams Project 1893 Coalition will host a repast in memory of the young Black man who was lynched in Salina in 1893. No one was ever arrested for the lynching.
The celebration, dedication, and installation of a historical marker for Adams is scheduled for 1-4 p.m. June 18 in Caldwell Plaza. The plaza is located between the City-County Building and the Salina Public Library. The event is open to the public.
"The upcoming celebration will conclude a two-year journey the coalition began in June 2020 to tell Dana Adams story on a broader scale and recognize the 128-year-old lynching that happened in Salina, Kansas, on April 20, 1893. Dana a 20-year-old Black man was unceremoniously pulled from a Union Pacific rail car which was purposely uncoupled from the main train pulling out of the station and lynched on the property, by being hung by the neck on a telegraph pole at the train station on Ninth and North Street," the Rev. Delores 'Dee' J. Williamston told Salina Post.
Williamston, of Topeka, is a member of the Coalition for The Dana Adams Project 1893 along with Salinans Sandy Beverly and the Rev. Dr. Martha Murchinson.
The June 18 event is a collaboration between the coalition and the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI)/Legacy Museum in Montgomery Alabama. The event will include the dedication of a historic marker in remembrance of Adams. The historic marker summarizes the story of racial terror in Kansas on one side and provides Dana Adams' story on the other side. The six-foot-tall historic marker is being provided by the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) Community Remembrance Project.
Following is a public invitation from the coalition.
In the great tradition of African American culture, we invite you to the grounds of Caldwell Plaza to break bread and honor the life of Dana Adams. Join us for the "Mercy Luncheon" that should have been part of the natural course of grieving, but was denied. When Dana Adams was lynched his family, friends and all Black African American citizens of Salina were afraid to go to work for days following the violent act on April 20, 1893.
The Dana Adams Project 1893 Coalition will host the long-overdue repast for this young man on June 18, 2022, the weekend of the federal holiday, Juneteenth. The event will conclude with the dedication of the historical marker provided by the Equal Justice Initiative. All events take place at Caldwell Plaza and the schedule of events is as follows:
1-2:45 p.m. Mercy Luncheon
Pulled pork sandwich, pasta salad, chips, cookies and drink
Free to all attendees
Entertainment during meal provided by Bantu Drumming Group and Dr. Daisy Kabagarama
3 p.m. Historical Plaque Dedication
Original poetry presentation - Dr. Jennifer Rogers Gordon
Guest speaker - Sheryl R. Wilson, director of the Kansas Institute for Peace and Justice, and author of Colorizing Restorative Justice
Unveiling of the historical marker
Bring a chair and join us, this is long past due!