While Sophie Kloppenburg could also be younger, she already has expertise combating adversity within the title of commemorating Black historical past.
This 17-year-old particularly needed to overcome pushback whereas embarking on a mission to pay homage to 7 Black males who had been lynched in her hometown of Mount Vernon, Indiana, per the Atlanta Black Star.
Calling Attention To Mount Vernon’s Dark Past
While practising for a driving check with a household pal, Sophie started to study of Mount Vernon’s troublesome historical past. Despite the South Indiana neighborhood being her hometown, she had by no means heard of its darkish previous.
“We got to talking about Black history and everything, and he told me about the lynchings that had happened, and I was obviously shocked because I’ve lived here my whole life and never knew that had happened.”
Over the course of three days in October 1878, a lynch mob brutally killed 7 males—Daniel Harrison Jr., John Harrison, Daniel Harrison Sr., Jim Good, William Chambers, Edward Warner, and Jeff Hopkins. CBS reviews that the killings passed off after the boys had been accused of rape. Additionally, it’s vital to notice that the mob hanged 4 of the boys exterior of the Posey County courthouse.
Once she discovered this data, Sophie sought out to see if the courthouse commemorated the incident in any respect. However, she was unable to seek out any point out of the killings, so she began a mission to vary that with a memorial.
Critics Fight To Whitewash History In Posey County
Although Sophie’s pursuit to honor the lynching victims is commendable, locals didn’t precisely embrace it with open arms.
As the neighborhood of Mount Vernon is predominately white, Sophie felt as if many weren’t too involved with the mission. In truth, she informed the Atlanta Black Star that she needed to enchantment to the Posey County Commissioners Office on 5 completely different events earlier than they agreed to see the memorial by means of.
Bryan Schorr, a county commissioner, addressed this by noting that the hesitance was “extra about getting the wording proper and ensuring it was correct and captured folks’s curiosity in a constructive manner.
In flip, Sophie recalled among the compromises she made to show her mission right into a actuality.
“I had to take out, to me, really important words like ‘lynched’ [and] ‘mobbed’…I couldn’t use those really important words because it made people too uncomfortable.”
Kloppenburg was positive to push again towards among the different edits, although.
“They also wanted me not to include the word African American in there, and I was like, absolutely not. What’s the point of us putting this up there if people don’t know this was a racially motivated murder?”
All in all, Sophie achieved her aim, and he or she’s pleased that her neighborhood is open to “having the difficult conversations.”
“I’m proud of Posey County, Indiana, and the beautiful people here for having the difficult conversations and giving a tangible voice to its minorities. Thank you.”
Sophie Kloppenburg, 17, of Mount Vernon, Indiana, helped give seven Black males who had been victims of the state’s largest recorded lynching a memorial 144 years after their ugly fates.
https://t.co/wLcOEhDUVc— Atlanta Black Star (@ATLBlackStar) November 19, 2022
Shoutout to Sophie Kloppenburg for pushing by means of and establishing a memorial to honor the victims of the Mount Vernon lynchings.