02/04/2026
Sunday, February 22, 2:00 pm at Kol HaEMEK
The Forgotten Era of Lynching – the Before and After
A presentation in recognition of Black History Month
Presented by Mary Waters
Why is this history important in this moment?
To make sense of the present, we need to understand the past. Yet Black history is being purged from school curricula across the country and expunged from national repositories such as the Smithsonian. We are on the road to a national forgetting of hard-to-face truths of our history.
The forces that led to the era of lynching foreshadow the social and political disintegration we are experiencing today. In exploring the relationship between present and past, the presentation examines why vigilante killings arose; how they eventually subsided; and what followed in their wake to perpetuate the subservience of Black citizens.
It investigates how the tools of suppression, once focused on Black communities, evolved to condone the persecution of immigrants; threaten the liberties and safety of all Americans; and sow fear among us today.
Mary Waters presents her talk from the perspective of a white person. She has illustrated it with slides that include powerful images from the "Lynching Memorial" (National Memorial for Peace and Justice). The talk will be from 2:00 - 3:15 p.m. and will be followed by discussion.
Refreshments will be served.
It can be daunting to face the shadow side of our history.
Learning in the company of others can offer support to grapple with painful truths.
