Lynching in America / Raising a Voice Against Racial Violence

Marker Text: Lynchings of African Americans occurred with alarming frequency throughout the United States, including Troup County and surrounding areas. For decades, racial violence was a fact of life. African Americans were denied basic security of person and property. Fear of police, courts, and night-riding terrorists was powerful. In fall 1940, historic Warren Temple Methodist Church was a center of protest against this injustice. The catalyst was the lynching of Austin Callaway (also known as Austin Brown) in LaGrange on September 7, 1940. That night, a band of armed men took Callaway from the local jail, shot him repeatedly, and left him to die on a rural road. With no meaningful response from white officials, the African American community, led by Rev. L.W. Strickland, pastor at Warren Temple, held mass meetings and organized the first branch of the NAACP in LaGrange. In late October, Strickland wrote Thurgood Marshall, concluding, “[The city has] settled the matter by ignoring it.” The lynching remained uninvestigated and no one was ever held responsible for it. Warren Temple, the NAACP members of the LaGrange community, and the family of Austin Callaway erected this marker in 2017 as a step toward recognition and healing. In January 2017, the Chief of Police, Mayor and city leaders formally apologized for the LaGrange Police Department’s role in the lynching of Austin Callaway.