On Sunday, Sept. 19, the Ed Johnson Memorial on Walnut Street Bridge officially opened. The memorial, five years in the making, remembers the brutal murder of Ed Johnson and the two lawyers that sought justice and vindication for him.
In 1906, a mob dragged Ed Johnson, an African American man, to Chattanooga’s Walnut Street Bridge and lynched him. He had been convicted of raping a white woman and therafter sentenced to death. After a stay of execution notice from the Supreme court, a mob took matters into their own hands and lynched Johnson.
This was not the first lynching on Walnut Street Bridge. In 1893, another African American man named Alfred Blount was also accused of raping a white woman and was subsequently lynched. What stood out about the 1906 case was that the Supreme court itself had ordered a stay of Ed Johnson’s execution. The Supreme Court had paused the execution because his lawyers were appealing the case to the Supreme Court
This was the first time that the US Supreme Court involved itself with a state criminal trial.
Because of the Supreme Court’s involvement in Johnson’s trial, the lynchers left a derogatory note on the body of Ed Johnson addressed to the Supreme Court Justice Harlan, who had advocated for Johnson’s case in the Supreme Court. “And because of that, because it was such a direct affront to the Supreme court, that they actually had a criminal trial in the Supreme Court” remarked Professor of English, Dr. Gwen Macallister. After Johnson’s lynching, the Supreme Court launched its first and only criminal trial, and prosecuted some of the lynchers.
Although the majority of the evidence showed Johnson to be innocent, it was not until the year 2000, almost a hundred years later, that Hamilton Courts officially vindicated Ed Johnson of his previous conviction.
In 2016, the Ed Johnson Project committee began meeting with the purpose of harnessing the story of Ed Johnson in order to help the community of Chattanooga to heal and to unite towards a better city.
Jerome Meadows, the artist who created and designed the Ed Johnson memorial, featured not only Ed Johnson, but also his two African American lawyers: Noah Parden and Style Hutchins. The three bronze statues of these men represent grace, courage, and compassion.
What is striking about these statues is how they are not placed high on a pedestal, but are on ground level.
“You can stand there and it’s like Johnson staring you in the eyes. And inviting you into a contemplation of the past and a contemplation of how we could change and how we could go forward,” Macallister said.
This theme of moving forward is continued not only in the symbolism of the statue of Ed Johnson treading on a noose as he walks forward and away from his death site, but also in the City of Chattanooga’s response to the memorial. “One of the most powerful things for me was when Mayor Tim Kelly came out and read a formal apology,” said Macallister. “It was also an acknowledgement that as a city we need to continue as a community to address injustice.”