There seems a very simple explanation for why the "awesome woman" never mentioned critical parts of her past to members of her current family: shame and guilt (" 'Awesome woman' never spoke of lynchings," June 20).
When a story you and an accomplice completely fabricated and circulated, resulting in the lynching deaths of three totally innocent black men, well, I can only imagine the depth of that remorse. She lived with this self-induced burden for her entire life, and keeping that tainted secret from generations to come probably helped lessen her grief somehow. One can only hope she did something positive and humane in the years that followed that horrendous event to at least partially absolve her great sin.
Keith M. Johnson
Cloquet
