photo by: Mike Yoder

Lawrence community leaders and members place soil from the area into glass jars during a memorial event Saturday, Oct. 9, 2021, in memory of three Black men — Pete Vinegar, George Robertson and Isaac King — who were lynched in Lawrence in 1882. The event took place beneath the Kansas River bridge near the site of the lynching. Soil was also collected in memory of Margaret "Sis" Vinegar, the daughter of Pete Vinegar.

The Watkins Museum of History will open an exhibit Friday about the lynching of three Black men that occurred near downtown Lawrence in 1882.

To create the exhibit, Watkins partnered with the Lawrence/Douglas County Community Remembrance Project Coalition, which has been leading an ongoing project to commemorate the lynching and add a marker near the lynching site. An announcement about the exhibit, “Confronting the Past,” states that it seeks to include the lynching in the city’s broader history.

“For years, the story of their deaths remained a quiet burden on the community, remembered among the Black citizens of Lawrence but largely forgotten in the telling of the city’s history,” the announcement states.

Pete Vinegar, Isaac King and George Robertson, all of whom were Black, were lynched by a mob at the Kansas River bridge near downtown Lawrence on June 10, 1882. King and Robertson were accused of killing a white man after they came upon him sexually assaulting 13-year-old Margaret “Sis” Vinegar, who was also Black, according to historical documents previously reviewed by the Journal-World. Vinegar was Margaret’s father and was arrested along with the others though never charged with a crime. Authorities at the time accused the men and Margaret of a robbery plot, and Margaret was convicted of murder and later died from tuberculosis in Leavenworth penitentiary at the age of 21 while her attorney was still working to gain her release.

The Lawrence branch of the NAACP has been working since 2019 with the Equal Justice Initiative, which created a national lynching memorial in Montgomery, Alabama, to erect a historical marker at the site of the lynching and take other steps to commemorate the victims. The Community Remembrance Project coalition, which includes the Watkins Museum, was formed as part of the project. Steps to commemorate the victims have included a community memorial at the grave sites of the three men and collecting soil from the site of the lynching to include at the national memorial and in Watkins’ permanent collection, among other community events.

Brittany Keegan, Watkins curator of exhibitions and collections, said the “Confronting the Past” exhibit traces the history of the lynching, Margaret’s imprisonment and the legacies of those events through the Community Remembrance Project’s recent efforts to build community acknowledgement of the lynching. She said the exhibit includes images from the recent Community Remembrance Project events, as well as the soil collected from the lynching site.

Keegan said the exhibit also explores how communities should address their difficult histories by discussing the choices Watkins staff made in creating the exhibit. She said that includes the decision not to include a noose that was used in the lynching in the exhibit.

Before it was provided to the Watkins’ collection, Keegan said the noose that was used to lynch King was for many years displayed in the Green Brothers Hardware Store in downtown Lawrence as part of a “local museum of curiosities.” Keegan said after consulting with the Lawrence branch of the NAACP, the Community Remembrance Project and the Equal Justice Initiative, Watkins decided not to display the noose as part of the exhibit.

“Instead, we use the exhibit to explain the considerations for and against displaying it,” Keegan said. “We hope that by sharing the discussion with museum visitors, it will highlight the complexity, and importance, of bringing these historical issues to light.”

“Confronting the Past” opens Friday at the Watkins Museum of History, 1047 Massachusetts St. The exhibit will be on display on the museum’s second floor until Aug. 19. Museum hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.