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Springfield city councilman Denny Whayne discusses the 1906 lynching during a panel discussion on Tuesday. Dr. Dominic Capeci, Dr. Maurice Tate and Mark Dixon were other panelists at the event.

Panel discusses effects of 1906 lynchings

By: Kevin Thompson

Posted: 9/15/06

Temple Hall was filled with talks of racism and injustice Tuesday night as a panel discussion was held on the lingering effects of Springfield's 1906 lynching in the town square.

The evening began with a screening of the late Dr. Katherine Lederer's film "Many Thousand Gone," a historical documentary about the lynching and the black community in Springfield. A short moment of silence was then observed in her memory.

The panel was made up of three unique men chosen to give a different perspective on the 1906 lynching: Dr. Dominic Capeci, Missouri State University professor and historian, Springfield City Councilman Denny Whayne, and local community activist Mark Dixon. Maurice Tate, pastor of Washington Avenue Baptist Church and a lecturer at Missouri State, moderated the panel.

Capeci opened the panel by giving a factual account of not only the events leading up to the lynching, but also the history of the prominent black community in Springfield.

"The difference in a lynching in Missouri is that they were decidedly urban as opposed to the rural lynchings that were occurring in other places," Capeci said.

He then went on to describe the plight of Horace Duncan, Fred Coker and Will Allen as they were dragged from their jail cells into town square, where they were hanged and then burned until their bodies were unrecognizable.

It was Capeci's facts that set the table for councilman Denny Whayne to then give a personal account of how the civil rights movement in Springfield was affected by the lynching.

"You can't forget history," Whayne said. "You can't wash history under the rug. There is good history. There is bad history. But history is history."

Whayne's personal accounts of black history in Springfield helped to show just how much the world has changed since that day in April in 1906.

"We were pioneers. We worked hard to cause trouble because it was Missouri's law, separate but equal, way back then. It was separate but equal, and well, I thought I was equal."

Whayne's closing remarks pointed toward a future where people wouldn't judge people by color.

"Springfield's been good to me," he said. "We helped change some things. Things change. People change. People change things. And that's what happened in Springfield."

The last panel member to speak, Dixon, is the president of the Bartley-Decauter Neighborhood Center. It was Dixon who took the events in 1906 and began to show how they will affect our future and what we must do with this knowledge.

"Easter Eve, 1906 was not 'an' event, but rather a series of events," Dixon said. "What is our excuse today? I'm not here blaming anybody. I'm interested in solutions to real problems that we are facing in this community each and every day."

Dixon talked about the choices we have as a community to put values ahead of greed so that we don't repeat the mistakes made in 1906 by harvesting a culture of prejudice and distrust. His closing challenge was a call for the community to stand up and make difference.

"Tonight was a pleasure," said Christopher Smith, a Missouri State graduate student. "This (racism) is the largest social problem in history. The fact that the lynching was done under a replica of the Statue of Liberty appalled me."

The packed crowd listened intently all through the evening as each member of the panel laid forth his own reasons for the lynching and racial violence in Springfield.

"We wanted to give people the whole truth," Tate said. "We need an awareness of the past, present, and future. We can look at the past but not to forget where we are and always look to the future."