An Opportunity for Alexandrians to Give Back and Pay it Forward
The Alexandria Community Remembrance Project’s Memorial Scholarship Program has been established to recognize and remember Alexandria’s two known lynching victims, Joseph McCoy (1897) and Benjamin Thomas (1899). The racial terror caused by their lynchings impacted the region’s entire African American community. These scholarships build upon Alexandria’s commitment to acknowledge and apologize for these past injustices while investing in our youth and the future. These scholarships also represent a step toward remedy – if not repair – and a step toward justice.
Joseph McCoy was18 years-old when his white employer Richard Lacy accused him of sexually assaulting his 8-year-old daughter. Within hours, a mob of at least 500 white Alexandrians forcibly took Mr. McCoy from his jail cell, shot him, bludgeoned him and hanged him from a lamppost in Old Town in the first hour of April 23, 1897. In the aftermath, city leaders and officers of the law colluded to protect themselves and the members of the mob. While the Governor opened an investigation into the incident, sanctioned the police and criticized the mayor, none of the members of the mob that killed Joseph McCoy were held accountable. Mr. McCoy’s Aunt, Uncle and little brother left Alexandria and moved to Washington, D.C. to join his other bereaved relatives. Immediately following the devastating lynching, afraid of a Black reprisal, armed white Alexandrians paraded through the streets terrorizing the city’s African American citizens for three nights.
Just two years later, on August 7, 1899, Benjamin Thomas, 16, was arrested for insulting the little white girl who lived next door, she was just 7-years-old. There were no adult witnesses, but on his daughter’s complaint, Edward Kloch swore out an arrest warrant. On Aug. 8, 1899, a crowd that may have been as large as 2000 people broke into the jail, found Mr. Thomas, tied him up and took him on a harrowing half-mile journey through the cobblestone streets of Old Town. Mr. Thomas was hanged and shot, and no one was held responsible for his murder. Again, armed white citizens patrolled the streets to ensure their Black neighbors stayed indoors. But within weeks, Alexandria and Washington, D.C.’s African Americans organized an economic boycott and held mass meetings in protest of the mob violence wielded against an innocent boy.
In recognition of these lynchings, the limitations created by a legacy of enslavement, decades of inequality caused by segregation and the underfunding of the Black public schools in this city, scholarships in the names of Joseph McCoy and Benjamin Thomas are being offered annually to two Alexandria City High School students with a 2.0 GPA or higher.
The Joseph McCoy Memorial Scholarship is available to a student planning to go into a trade and can be used to attend community college, or a program to obtain job skills, certifications, and licensures.
The Benjamin Thomas Memorial Scholarship is for a student pursuing a college degree in a social justice or truth telling field, such as History, Journalism, Law, Education, Art, and the Ministry.
To learn more about Joseph McCoy, Benjamin Thomas, and the Alexandria Community Remembrance Project, please visit the Alexandria Community Remembrance Project website.
About the Scholarship Fund of Alexandria
