For Toni Thorstad, 2009 Port Cities Woman of the Year, the Clayton Jackson McGhie Memorial is a sacred place, one that she had always visited alone until Monday.
"It was just hard for me to come," she said of previous Days of Remembrance. This year Thorstad joined a crowd gathered to pay their respects to three young men and to foster unity among races.
Since she was named the Port Cities Woman of the Year, Thorstad said she felt the need to be present, but she wasn't sure what she would say.
"It has to be from the heart," she said, "I don't have to come every year, but when I do, I'll know why."
On June 15, 1920, three black men: Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson and Isaac McGhie, were wrongfully accused of raping a white woman and lynched by an angry mob. Eighty-nine years later, a memorial stands in their honor on the corner where the incident occurred.
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"Racism and bigotry remain in our community today," Mayor Don Ness said in his welcome speech. "We must be vigilant to eliminate that racism."
Inscribed along the top of the memorial are these words of Edmund Burke: "An event has happened, upon which it is difficult to speak and impossible to remain silent."
The Clayton Jackson McGhie Memorial Committee, formed in 2000, was the driving force behind raising the memorial at First Street and Second Avenue East. Since it was built in 2003, an annual Day of Remembrance has taken place at the site.
In addition to addresses from Thorstad and Ness, the event included comments from board member Sheryl Boman; musical performances by Spirit Circle Drummers, Oshki Giishki Singers and sax soloist Matt Livingston; and a poetry reading by the 2009 Clayton Jackson McGhie Memorial Scholarship recipient, Salisa Grant.
Grant told the audience that she was honored to read her poem titled "And So I Write," which was part of her scholarship application.
Concluding the event, Boman emphasized the importance of moving forward as a community of mixed races.
"We need to take the words that Salisa [Grant] wrote in her poem and the words that Toni [Thorstad] spoke and take a moment to think about how we can use them to keep hope alive," Boman said.
