Sculpture honoring Black victims of racial violence to be displayed at Anderson University

Travis Jacque Rose, Anderson Independent Mail
Updated ·3 min read
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In partnership with the Anderson Area Remembrance and Reconciliation Initiative, Anderson University will honor five victims of public racial violence that occurred from 1894 to 1911.

Anderson native Herman Keith Jr. has created a sculpture in memory of the victims. It will be displayed at Anderson University beginning Sept. 21, at 5:30 p.m., in the Daniel Recital Hall of the Rainey Fine Arts Center. The traveling exhibit will be displayed at Anderson University through February 2023.

The statue was originally unveiled last November at Welfare Baptist Church in Belton. Since then, the sculpture has also been on display in the Oglesby Center Atrium AnMed North Campus and the Pendleton Library.

Keith says his vision is to "Take the story to the people."

Keith, a Howard University graduate, is known for his artwork on Orr Street in Anderson. The Equal Justice Initiative hired Keith to design the memorial dedicated to the five victims.

The sculpture displays burnt wood, lanterns and gas cans to symbolize the torches of fires lit at night during the lynchings. The rectangular design is meant to represent a coffin. The jars of soil are from the five sites where the murders took place.

Dr. James Noble, Vice President for Diversity, Community, and Inclusion speaks to a crowd on the second floor of the Thrift Library for the unveiling of his art sculpture, during the Remembrance and Reconciliation art revealed event at Anderson University Thursday, September 21, 2023. The art made of wood, metal, glass, and soil at the fourth stop of a tour around Anderson County.

The ceremony to unveil the sculpture will be held on the second floor of the Thrift Library. The sculpture seeks to bring awareness of the events that took place at the five sites and to honor the victims.

Keith hopes the sculpture will serve as a "reminder of injustice and brutality African Americans have faced throughout history and how far we have come as people today."

Anderson Mayor Terence Roberts, right, and Kaye Brewer, left, Chief Human Resources Officer of AnMed Health, look at the sculpture by Herman Keith, Jr. during the event "The Strange Fruit of Lynching", by the Pendleton Foundation for Black History and Culture at the Pendleton branch of the Anderson County Library Thursday, June 15, 2023. The sculpture was commissioned by Anderson Area Remembrance and Reconciliation Initiative, a group from Anderson County, with jars with dirt representing soil from sites where men were lynched in Anderson County. Organizers said the ceremony is an ongoing effort to foster dialog, promote education and encourage conversations with a goal of inspiring harmony before the sculpture is moved to AnMed Health North campus, with an unveiling June 19 at 5 p.m.

Remembering the victims: Anderson remembrance group brings soil from lynching sites to Memorial Center in Montgomery

Here's what to know about the victims

The five victims were Edward Sullivan, Elbert Harris, John Laddison, Reuben Elrod and Willis Jackson, according to researcher Dr. Stuart Sprague.

The Anderson Intelligencer reported that Ed Sullivan was wrongly accused of killing a man and was then killed on Dec. 19, 1894.

An Anderson Intelligencer newspaper article reported on May 25, 1898, that Elbert Harris destroyed a ginhouse in Iva. He died in police custody after being arrested.

John Laddison was lynched for his alleged involvement in a crime and was killed on Nov. 27, 1901.

The Anderson Intelligencer and the Keowee Courier reported on Tuesday night, June 30, 1903, Reuben Elrod was murdered in his home in Piedmont, South Carolina by a group of white men.

During the night of Oct 12, 1911, the Greenville Daily News reported Willis Jackson was killed by an unknown mob.

Researcher Dr. Stuart Sprague says all five men were killed without charges or due process. The ceremony will include five history passages each telling the story of one of the victims.

How the racial killings became known

The Equal Justice Initiative is a non-profit organization in Montgomery, Alabama, that represents wrongfully convicted prisoners without legal representation.

In 2020, community members in Anderson County formed the Anderson Area Remembrance and Reconciliation Initiative.

After they discovered five known racial victims killed due to unfair justice, the initiative began to gather stories and create a memorial to honor the victims.

Anderson Area Remembrance and Reconciliation Initiative traveled to Montgomery Alabama on March 17, 2023, to deliver five jars of soil representing Anderson County victims of racial violence.

Members met with the Equal Justice Initiative and participated in a ceremony commemorating the event.

The victims joined the Legacy Pavilion. This features a monument to over 2,000 women, men and children who were victims of racial violence in the aftermath of the Civil War.

Travis Rose covers Anderson County for the Independent Mail. Reach him via email at trose@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Anderson Independent Mail: Anderson University sculpture dedicated to victims of racial violence