National Memorial for Peace and Justice National Memorial for Peace and Justice

By: Barbara Cheives | pbcremembrance.org

In June of 1923, Henry Simmons was lynched on the island of Palm Beach. We know that Officer J.N. Smith stopped “three Negroes in regard to the butchering of a turtle” and the possible possession of turtle meat and eggs. We know that a struggle ensued, and Officer Smith was shot with his own firearm. Sadly, he died three days later. Also sadly, when a mob of white men sought to avenge his death, they roused Mr. Simmons from his West Palm Beach rooming house in the middle of the night, then he was taken to Palm Beach and lynched. No connection was ever established between Henry Simmons and the policeman’s death, and no one was ever charged in Henry Simmons’ death.

In October of 1926, Samuel Nelson was lynched in Delray Beach. Mr. Nelson was supposedly charged with assaulting a white woman in Miami. He was arrested and jailed in Delray. An Associated Press report says that, “The following morning the steel door of the jail was found battered open and the Negro gone.” The body of Mr. Nelson was found on the bank of a canal near Military Trail, four miles west of Delray.

The lynching and murders of African Americans in America are a very ugly part of our history. More than 4,000 African American men, women, and children were hanged, burned alive, shot, drowned, and beaten to death by white mobs between 1877 and 1950. Brian Stevenson built the National Memorial for Peace and Justice on the grounds of his Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) in Montgomery, Alabama. This national monument to lynching sits on a six-acre site and is a sacred space for truth-telling and reflection about racial terror in America and its legacy.

I visited this museum in 2018 and found it to be one of the most moving experiences of my life. Among the sculptures and art designed to contextualize racial terror, 800 six-foot monuments are hanging to symbolize the victims. Each steel structure is engraved with the names of lynching victims and the county in which they were lynched. I found myself nearly paralyzed and in tears when reading the multiple Florida counties and then I came to Palm Beach County.

Barbara Cheives

Barbara Cheives serves as the Co-Vice Chair of the Palm Beach County Community Remembrance Project Coalition and the Co-Chair of the Education and Community Engagement Committee. You can visit the site at pbcremembrance.org to follow the progress, volunteer, or to donate to the project.

Because of that trip, I became involved with the Palm Beach County Community Remembrance Project. On the site in Montgomery are 800 stone replicas of the steel monuments. They plan to have each of the counties that are represented claim the replicas to be prominently displayed. Our County Administrator assembled a coalition of community members to lead that charge and we have been working for the past two years to bring our pillar home.

Claiming the pillars is a multi-step project. They ask that we collect soil from the site of the lynching. We have collected the soil of Mr. Samuels in western Delray Beach. His soil is contained in large jars bearing his name. Several of the jars will remain in our county and one is going to be housed in the National Monument. Several of us are making the pilgrimage to Montgomery in February to deliver the soil. We are in the process of arranging for the collection of soil for Mr. Simmons. It is important to EJI that any county that is applying to receive their monument have community buy-in and support.

In December of 2022, we held an Essay Contest for 9th to 12th-grade students in our county. The students submitted essays about racial injustice in the United States. EJI is in the process of reading and judging the essays and will award scholarships to the students for the winning essays.

Additionally, we are planning a series of cultural and educational events ranging from arts to dance to a memorial quilt. My mother always told me that if we don’t know our history, we are doomed to repeat it. In 2020 when I participated in a march for Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man murdered during a racially motivated hate crime while jogging in Georgia, I found it reminiscent of Mr. Simmons and Mr. Nelson. He was erroneously assumed to be a burglar. It is my prayer that our work with this multicultural coalition will help to teach our community a lesson so that incidents of racial terror are not repeated.

Beyond The Couch highlights non-traditional mental health outlets and resources in Palm Beach County. To contribute, send your article ideas to thewell@bewellpbc. org with “Beyond the Couch” in the subject line.