Gainesville’s first soil collection ceremony memorializes city’s lynching victims
About 100 community members, Gainesville residents and local officials gathered to honor the 12 victims February 22, 2021 | 6:30am EST
Alachua County Commissioner Marihelen Wheeler, 69, (right) and her granddaughter Tashayla Downer, 8, (left) fill a jar with soil to honor Andrew Ford at the Gainesville Soil Collection Ceremony on Feb. 20, 2021. Ford was lynched in Gainesville on Aug. 24, 1891, according to a pamphlet from the Alachua County Community Remembrance Project. Photo by Julia Cooper | The Independent Florida Alligator
Latoya Brazil didn’t know the story of how her great-grandfather Lester Watts was lynched in Gainesville until she was 17
A few paces from where the statue of Old Joe once honored Civil War confederate soldiers, a different group of people were honored Saturday 12 Gainesville men who were lynched after the war.
The ceremony was part of Alachua County’s truth and reconciliation project to acknowledge the extra-judicial killings often by mobs.
“In 1865, after two-and-a-half centuries of brutal enslavement, Black Americans had great hope that emancipation would finally mean real freedom and opportunity,” said the Rev. Carl Smart, an assistant county manager. “Unfortunately it quickly became clear that emancipation did not mean equality for Black people .The hope of reconstruction quickly became a nightmare of unparalleled violence and oppression.”
TV fans will recognise actor and model James from his role as the terrifying East End gangster Lester Watts in Call The Midwife back in 2017.
In 2015 James appeared as Dean Fallon in Silent Witness, as well as appearing in many other TV roles including Hollyoaks and Doctors.
This isn’t the first time that James has been in EastEnders, either. He also appeared back in 2011 as a character called Brendan.
A new chapter
Speaking of his new role, James said: “I’m thrilled to be joining EastEnders.
“As a born and bred Londoner myself, I can’t wait to bring my experience of a place I love and know to such a well-respected long running show, with such iconic characters.