photo by: Sabrina Buchanek

A crowd gathers in downtown Lawrence on Saturday, June 10, 2023, after the unveiling of a historical marker that tells the story of Margaret "Sis" Vinegar.

Near the site of where a 14-year-old Black girl was falsely convicted of crimes against her rapist, a marker now stands.

What it stands for is many-fold: the sexual violence that Black women and girls suffered at the hands of white men, the further victimization from an unjust justice system, and ultimately, the tragic story of a girl known as Sis that for many years went untold. At a dedication for the historical marker commemorating Margaret “Sis” Vinegar on Saturday evening, the community gathered to recognize both the lies and the truth that make up that story.

The marker tells of how Margaret, instead of being seen as a child and victim of rape, was falsely portrayed as a prostitute, and then accused without evidence of conspiring to murder the man who raped her. Ursula Minor, president of the Lawrence branch of the NAACP, said the marker stands as a reminder of the community’s continuing efforts to deal with painful racial history truthfully.

photo by: Sabrina Buchanek

Ursula Minor, president of the Lawrence branch of the NAACP, speaks on Saturday, June 10, 2023, at the Lawrence Public Library during a dedication ceremony for a historical marker that tells the story of Margaret “Sis” Vinegar.

“Margaret was a 14-year-old Black girl who was sexually assaulted by an older white man during a time when Black women were scared to stop white men’s advances for fear of their lives and their families,” Minor said. “Ultimately that fear was warranted. Three Black men were hanged and Margaret was sentenced to prison, where she died.”

The dedication ceremony was held 141 years after the events of June 1882, when David Bausman, a white farmer in his 40s, sexually assaulted Margaret under the Kansas River bridge in downtown Lawrence. Isaac King and George Robertson, two friends of Margaret’s family who came to her aid, both of whom were Black, were lynched after Bausman’s body was found in the river. Pete Vinegar, Margaret’s father, was also lynched, though he was not in town the day the events took place.

Following the lynching, Margaret was put on trial. An all-white male jury convicted her of murder. Her lawyers requested a new trial in another county, and in 1883 a second all-white jury convicted her as well. She was sent to Lansing prison, where she contracted tuberculosis and died at the age of 20.

Jennifer Ananda, executive director of the Sexual Trauma & Abuse Care Center, said the key to the context of the events was understanding how sexual violence has been used to oppress minority groups, especially Black women, and the failure of systems of justice to address those crimes.

“Too often, we fail to adequately respond when sexual violence is used as a tool for oppression, and we punish those who would seek their own justice when systems and communities continuously fail to protect them,” Ananda said. “We punish those who seek the only resolution they can see available to them.”

photo by: Sabrina Buchanek

Jennifer Ananda, executive director of the Sexual Trauma and Abuse Care Center, speaks on Saturday, June 10, 2023, at the Lawrence Public Library during a dedication ceremony for a historical marker that tells the story of Margaret “Sis” Vinegar.

The Lawrence branch of the NAACP collaborated with the Equal Justice Initiative on the marker project, which seeks to recognize the racial and sexual violence Margaret faced, as the Journal-World recently reported. The collaboration, the Lawrence/Douglas County Remembrance Project Coalition, which also involves the city, placed a historical marker on the site of the lynching last year. The Lawrence City Commission voted in May to approve the historical marker for Margaret.

Kansas 7th Judicial District Judge Mark Simpson said the community’s judicial system was part of the horrible injustice that Margaret suffered. He said unlike the lynching, the fact that Margaret died in prison was not illegal vigilantism, but happened under the law, in a courtroom — put in place by judges and jurors who took oaths to follow the Constitution and the law.

“But despite those oaths to do justice, to follow the law, to find the truth, our system produced a grave evil,” Simpson said. “And the truth is, as you all know, that this was not the first injustice that involved our justice system and it wasn’t the last.”

photo by: Sabrina Buchanek

Judge Mark Simpson speaks on Saturday, June 10, 2023, at the Lawrence Public Library during a dedication ceremony for a historical marker that tells the story of Margaret “Sis” Vinegar.

Simpson said he was reminded of the words of James Baldwin, who said, “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” Simpson said that although what happened to Margaret can’t be changed, if it is faced honestly — which is what the community had gathered to do on Saturday — he hoped some change could come.

“I think we can play some small role in changing the racism and sexism that exploited her, imprisoned her, and treated Margaret as if her life were unimportant,” he said.

Mayor Lisa Larsen, who is honorary co-chair of the coalition, said for the past three years the coalition has worked to bring the truth of the heinous events of the lynching, and the men who were hanged without trial from the Kansas River Bridge by a mob of white men for the sole act of trying to protect and defend Margaret. She said while the marker dedicated last year told of the lynching, the marker dedicated Saturday would tell Margaret’s story.

“This marker speaks the truth about that sexual assault and the wrongful conviction and imprisonment of Margaret,” Larsen said. “The coalition has diligently worked to shine the light on the truth and find a pathway to healing.”

photo by: Sabrina Buchanek

Lawrence Mayor Lisa Larsen speaks on Saturday, June 10, 2023, at the Lawrence Public Library during a dedication ceremony for a historical marker that tells the story of Margaret “Sis” Vinegar.

Toward the end of the ceremony, State Rep. Barbara Ballard led those gathered in singing “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” Ballard, who at one point went silent as she was overcome by what she described as the heartbreaking story of Margaret, asked the crowd to sing the second verse one more time. She said though Margaret, at 14, had barely begun to live, the marker provided some justice.

“Because now that 14-year-old can live,” Ballard said. “Because people will see the marker, and they will learn the true story.”

Coalition coordinator Kerry Altenbernd ended the ceremony by having the crowd say all four victims’ names — the three lynching victims’ names, followed by Margaret’s — before those gathered went outside to see the marker unveiled.

The Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama, provided the marker for Margaret, as well as the lynching marker, as part of the Lynching in America project. The project has identified more than 4,400 racial terror lynchings that occurred in the U.S. between the years 1877 and 1950.

photo by: Sabrina Buchanek

State Rep. Barbara Ballard leads the crowd in a performance of “Lift Every Voice and Sing” on Saturday, June 10, 2023, at the Lawrence Public Library during a dedication ceremony for a historical marker that tells the story of Margaret “Sis” Vinegar.

photo by: Sabrina Buchanek

A historical marker that tells the story of Margaret “Sis” Vinegar is unveiled on Saturday, June 10, 2023, in downtown Lawrence.

photo by: Rochelle Valverde/Journal-World

A historical marker that tells the story of Margaret “Sis” Vinegar is unveiled on Saturday, June 10, 2023, in downtown Lawrence.