Photo: The lynching memorial plaque at Case Park was removed from its post and thrown over a hill and down a cliff. Photo: Courtesy Andrew Zimmerman/KCTV5 News
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – An historical marker in Kansas City, Missouri, commemorating the 1882 lynching of a black man by a white mob that was damaged last month will be removed.
KCTV-TV reports that the marker will be removed Friday.
The marker in a Kansas City park was installed in 2018. It details the case of Levi Harrington, who was killed by a white mob on April 3, 1882, after he was falsely accused of killing a white police officer earlier that day. After a rope was placed around his neck, Harrington was thrown off a bridge and shot several times as hundreds of people watched.
The actual killer was later arrested and tried. No one was ever charged in Harrington’s death.
In mid-June, someone cut down the marker and threw it down a hill. The incident happened in the midst of protests after George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis, but it’s unclear who damaged the anti-lynching marker, or why they did it.
City workers retrieved the marker and re-installed it.
But the city Parks and Recreation Department decided the marker “requires an inclusive process” in deciding how to move forward.
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