[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 141 (Friday, September 2, 2022)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E896]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        HONORING THE MEMORY OF JOSEPH McCOY AND BENJAMIN THOMAS

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. DONALD S. BEYER, JR.

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                       Friday, September 2, 2022

  Mr. BEYER. Madam Speaker, I rise in memory of Joseph McCoy and 
Benjamin Thomas--and to commend the City of Alexandria for its work on 
the Alexandria Community Remembrance Project (ACRP).
  Through its partnership with the Equal Justice Initiative, the ACRP 
has brought our community together to remember the city's history of 
racial terror and to memorialize Joseph McCoy and Benjamin Thomas, who 
were lynched in 1897 and 1899, respectively. These lynchings were two 
of 86 documented lynchings committed in Virginia between 1880 and 1930. 
These acts of premeditated violence were deliberate attempts by whites 
to terrorize and control black populations across the state.
  As our community convenes again on September 24, 2022 we do so to 
collect soil representing these two young men's lives. In October, 
Alexandrians will then make a pilgrimage to Montgomery, Alabama to 
deliver this sacred soil to its final resting place at the National 
Memorial for Peace and Justice.
  These events also occur during a year in which the Emmitt Till 
Antilynching Act, a federal bill making lynching a federal hate crime, 
was signed into law by President Biden on March 29. I was proud to 
support this long overdue legislation in the U.S. House of 
Representatives, but also recognize that we still have much more work 
to do.
  It is incumbent on all of us to remember this shameful episode of our 
history and others like it. In doing so, we are better able to see the 
continuous chain of racially motivated violence against Black Americans 
that spans our nation's history. We can truly honor the memories of 
Joseph McCoy and Benjamin Thomas, along with the countless number of 
named and unnamed victims of racial violence, by seeking justice for 
all Americans and working to build a more inclusive society.

                          ____________________