Christopher Davis
The Ohio University community is welcome to join in the commemoration of a 24-year-old man named Christopher Davis who was lynched in Athens in 1881.
The commemoration, coordinated by a local Athens coalition in conjunction with the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) in Montgomery, Alabama, is Saturday, Sept. 14, at 11 a.m. at the end of the parking lot at the lower level of Baker Center.
There will be a ceremony to collect soil from the site to send to the Legacy Museum and Memorial in Montgomery.
The Southeast Ohio History Center is having an exhibit to coincide with this event, and they will accession a jar of soil for their collection, too.
Christopher Davis, a Black farmhand and father of two, was lynched in Athens on Nov. 21, 1881.
A White mob of more than 30 men took him from the jail before he could stand trial and present his defense against charges of rape and assault of a White woman in Albany, Ohio.
This ceremony to commemorate his life and to collect soil from the site will be held at the approximate site of his hanging: the base of the old South Bridge.
The Christopher Davis Community Remembrance Project is coordinated by Mount Zion Baptist Church Preservation Society, Multicultural Genealogical Center, Showing Up for Racial Justice of SE Ohio, and Southeast Ohio History Center.
- Graduate student Jordan Zdinak’s exhibit, “The Lunching of Christopher Davis: A free exhibit on racial injustice and implicit bias,” opened Sept. 12 and will be up through the fall at the Southeast Ohio History Center, 24 W. State St., Athens.
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