Alfie McGinty grew up on the Indianapolis West Side — not far from where 19-year-old George Tompkins had been lynched in 1922. Tompkins was Black, as is McGinty.

Even in the neighborhood, most people didn't know about the crime. The coroner a century ago told reporters it was clearly a murder. But the death certificate said “suicide.” Now McGinty is the Marion County coroner. Three years ago, she responded to a petition from the Indiana Remembrance Coalition (IRC) by correcting the death certificate. And now a historical marker stands at the scene of the crime. McGinty was there March 16 to help dedicate it.

“Too often the voices and histories of Black residents have been left out of our collective memory,” she said at Municipal Gardens Family Center on Lafayette Road.

IRC, based at St. Luke's United Methodist Church, had requested the marker from the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), a national racial justice organization based in Montgomery, Alabama. The ceremony was 103 years to the day since Tompkins's body was found hanging from a tree, his hands tied behind his back.

“His life was taken in an act of racial terror, and…his death was used to send the message of violence and control,” EJI staff attorney Stephanie Wylie told the gathering.

“It has never been more important to acknowledge tragedies like this one,” said Judith Thomas, deputy mayor of Indianapolis.

IRC co-chair Karen Christensen and Jeremy Kranowitz, president and CEO of Keep Indianapolis Beautiful, described their plans to create a peaceful, welcoming space — the Memorial Grove Remembrance Garden — around the marker.

Also speaking were IRC historian Leon Bates and Professor Joseph Tucker Edmonds from Indiana University Indianapolis.

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