A living history lesson.(The Goodness of America)

On the evening of June 15, 1920, an angry lynch mob estimated at 5,000 to 10,000 people broke into the Duluth, Minnesota, city jail and dragged out three young black circus workers who had been accused of rape. The trio--Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson, and Isaac McGhie--were hung from nearby light posts. Little evidence would ever be found to corroborate the accusations made against the men, and an examination of the alleged victim by her family physician showed no physical signs of rape or assault.

The incident entered history as a tragic example of what happens when the passions of the mob triumph over the rule of law.

In 2003 citizens of Duluth decided to make amends for the 83-year-old injustice by forming a committee to erect a memorial to the three victims of mob rule. The city of Duluth provided $71,000 for the memorial, and the Clayton Jackson McGhie Memorial Committee engaged in various fund-raising activities, including ice cream socials, to raise the funds necessary to complete the three-quarter-of-a-million-dollar monument. The Commemoration Committee enlisted sculptor Carla Stetson and writer Anthony Peyton Porter to design the monument, which would feature three larger-than-life bronze figures representing Clayton, Jackson, and McGhie.

This past January, snowstorms in Minnesota buried the monument, and due to disagreement about exactly whose responsibility clearing away the snow was, it remained covered with snow for longer than some people thought was appropriate.

One public-spirited citizen, however, ...