An angry mob hanged George Marshall Clark from a pile driver in the Third Ward in 1861 after dragging the 24-year-old Black man, who had worked alongside his father as a barber, from a jail cell while brutally beating him.
The site of the only documented lynching in Milwaukee County now features a marker memorializing one of the darkest events in local history. It was unveiled Wednesday with a goal of raising public awareness about Clark’s unlawful killing while creating a means toward healing from the social trauma and honoring his life more than 160 years later.
“Let this plaque not only be a symbol of a dark past but also a beacon of hope for a brighter, more equitable future,” Milwaukee County Landmarks Committee Chairman Randy Bryant said during a ceremony at the site on Wednesday. “In acknowledging his life and the pain endured, we dedicate ourselves to a better world where such acts are unthinkable. Together, we can assure that the memory of George Marshall Clark lives on, not just in this plaque but in our collective commitment to justice and equality.”
Bryant noted that Clark was born in Pennsylvania and joined his father in Milwaukee in 1858 as a barber apprentice.
“Little did they known that only three years later he would meet a horrific death that would change the history for Milwaukee’s African American families,” he said.
Wording on the plaque spells out the details of the events that led to Clark’s lynching, which occurred on Sept. 8, 1861, in the early days of the Civil War. Clark and James Shelton, another Black man, were jailed the previous night after a fight during which Shelton fatally stabbed Darby Carney, a white man who owned a popular Third Ward saloon. When Carney died, a mob stormed the city jail in the early morning hours of Sept. 8. Shelton escaped but the crowd seized Clark, severely beat him and then dragged him to the site on East Buffalo Street, between what is now North Broadway and North Water Street, where he was hanged. Police arrested six men for their roles during the uprising, but none was convicted. Shelton was tried and acquitted after being deemed to have acted in self-defense.
Clark was buried in an unmarked grave in Forest Home Cemetery on the day he was hanged. His burial plot remained unmarked until two years ago when an effort by local artist and activist Tyrone Macklee Randle led to the installation of a black granite headstone on the site.
“The lynching of George Marshall Clark is a dark moment in our region’s history, but one we must acknowledge and commemorate in order to move forward,” Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley said. “I know everybody wants to remember the sunshine and rainbows that happen in our community, but we cannot just choose to remember the pieces of our community’s history that shine a positive light. It’s only by recognizing the deep societal impact of these events and remembering where we come from that we can begin to heal and honestly look to the future.”
As he focused his attention on the marker, Mayor Cavalier Johnson said it’s “unimaginable to think about what transpired here.”
“This plaque will remind us that we have come a long way. It will also remind us that we have so, so far to go,” Johnson said.
This site was designated as a Milwaukee County landmark in 2018 but finding a specific spot for the marker turned out to be somewhat problematic given the “racial reckoning” that would come with the killing of George Floyd under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer was still two years off.
“It was very difficult to find a home for this,” Bryant said.
He credited Ken Hanson of Hanson Dodge Creative for offering the parcel of land on which the historical marker is installed.
The marker is made of solid bronze and will require little, if any, maintenance, Byrant noted.
“It will be here in perpetuity,” he said.
