Kansas City removes badly damaged memorial for Black man lynched in 1882 by mob
Kansas City Parks and Recreation on Friday removed the badly damaged historical marker for Levi Harrington, a 23-year-old Black man lynched by a white mob in 1882.
The memorial marker was vandalized in June when someone cut it from its pole in West Terrace Park and threw it of a cliff.
The parks department said in a release on Thursday that the attempted destruction of the marker was “more than an act of vandalism; it was an intentional attempt to eliminate a very important piece of our history.”
The parks department reinstalled the damaged marker in an attempt to demonstrate that “this hate and disrespect would not be tolerated.”
But while working with the Community Remembrance Project and Equal Justice Initiative, the parks department decided to remove the damaged marker while a new one is made and a ceremony held when it’s installed.
“We want to rededicate a new marker in this space,” said Glenn North, co-founder of the Community Remembrance Project, in a video the parks department produced of the marker’s removal. “We want to have a celebration of the life of Levi Harrington. We want to invite the community to come and engage with us to understand the significance and importance of this marker and this sacred space.”
The new marker, which has been ordered, will be installed in the same location. A date for the installation and celebration has not been set. The damaged marker was removed to the Bruce R. Watkins Cultural Heritage Center, where it will be stored.
The marker was erected in 2018 near 10th and Summit Streets. The location was chosen because of its proximity to the lynching of Harrington the night of April 3, 1882.
That night a police officer was fatally shot while chasing two men suspected of stealing from a nearby shipping yard. Harrington was in the area and a group chased him down and turned him over to police.
As Harrington was being transferred to the main jail, a mob of several hundred people overpowered officers and seized Harrington. They wrapped a rope around his neck and hurled him over the side of the Fifth Street cable car bridge. Someone shot Harrington several times.
