New marker to memorialize 2 lynching victims in Alabama
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama memorial is being dedicated to two black men who were killed in what are described as racist lynchings near Birmingham in the 1890s.
The Jefferson County Memorial Project says it will dedicate a marker to Tom Redmond and Jake McKenzie at Sloss Furnaces on Monday night.
An announcement says both men worked at mines owned by Sloss-Sheffield Iron and Steel, and both were killed in the old mining town of Brookside during confrontations with police.
Redmond was killed during a shootout near a company store in 1890. McKenzie was fatally shot seven years later when a city marshal attempted to arrest a black man for abusive language.
A statement by Mayor Randall Woodfin describes both men as victims of “unspeakable hate.”