[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 146 (Friday, August 13, 2021)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E901]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   IN HONOR OF THE EQUAL JUSTICE INITIATIVE'S COMMUNITY REMEMBRANCE 
                                PROJECT

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. MARK POCAN

                              of wisconsin

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, August 13, 2021

  Mr. POCAN. Madam Speaker, today I rise to recognize the installation 
of a historical marker in the Good Hope Missionary Baptist Church yard 
on August 1, 2021, which will memorialize the life and death of three 
American citizens who were lynched in 1908. This month my constituent, 
Ms. Joyce Salter Johnson, will travel with friends and family from 
Wisconsin to Mississippi to honor her relative, Frank Johnson, as one 
of those three men who were violently murdered in Hickory, Mississippi.
  This historical marker is part of the important work being done by 
the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) in honoring and memorializing lives 
lost to racial violence in America through its campaign, the Community 
Remembrance Project. Since its founding in 1989 by American lawyer and 
bestselling author Bryan Stevenson, EJI has fought to end mass 
incarceration and excessive punishment in the United States, challenge 
racial and economic injustice, and protect basic human rights for the 
most vulnerable. EJI has become a critical institution dedicated to 
addressing the legacy of slavery, lynching, and racial segregation 
through its robust projects, museums, and memorials. In April 2018, EJI 
opened America's first national memorial dedicated to victims of racial 
terror in Montgomery, Alabama, inspired by the late Dr. James Cameron's 
Black Holocaust Museum, founded in my home state of Wisconsin.
  EJI's Community Remembrance Project partners with community 
coalitions to do extensive research of documented victims of racial 
violence. Its sister project, the Community Soil Collection Project, 
gathers soil at lynching sites for display in powerful exhibits 
honoring these victims. Narrative historical markers are then built in 
public locations where racial terror took place.
  My constituent, Joyce Salter Johnson, is a historian and author whose 
third book provides a thorough history of the Freedmen Settlement of 
Good Hope, Mississippi, where she lived until the age of 10. That is 
how she knew of the terrible sequence of events that led to the October 
10, 1908 lynching of her relative, Mr. Frank Johnson, and two others, 
Dee Dawkins and William Fielder, prior to EJI's documentation. Because 
of her knowledge and adept research ability, she was perfectly suited 
to lead the coalition members working on the Community Remembrance 
Project for these men.
  I commend the work of the Equal Justice Initiative and all those who 
help further the Community Remembrance Project's mission of confronting 
the legacy of slavery, lynching, and segregation to pave the way toward 
a better, more just future. I extend my heartfelt best wishes, thanks, 
and solidarity to Ms. Johnson and her family and friends on their 
journey of remembrance and memorial.

                          ____________________