23 years later, Grand Forks makes good on a promise to commemorate an 1880s lynching victim - Grand Forks Herald
City Council members voted unanimously this week to donate $2,000 to the Charles Thurber Memorial Scholarship, which aims to help high school students who are committed to anti-racist work. The fund is named after Charles Thurber, a Black man who was hanged from a Red River railroad bridge by a mob in October 1882 after a pair of white women accused him of sexual assault.
“None of us can give Charles Thurber back his life, but we can give him back his name,” Audra Mehl, a former Grand Forks Central High School teacher, wrote to council members.
In 1997, Mehl proposed a memorial to City Council members alongside some of her students at Central. Council members agreed to set aside $500 for a memorial, but those plans quickly fell to the wayside a few months later when the city was swamped by a historic flood.
Mehl moved out of town after the flood, and a handful of people tried since then to pick up where she left off, but their proposals all ultimately faltered at Grand Forks City Hall – until the death of George Floyd made the cultural moment ripe for another push this summer. That effort, which was at least the fourth, succeeded, and dozens of Grand Cities residents showed up to a dedication ceremony for the city’s newly installed Thurber memorial last month.
Among them was Mayor Brandon Bochenski, who after the service reportedly told Maura Ferguson, the foremost proponent of the memorial this go-round, that he intended for the city to pay what it approved 23 years earlier.
Even after accounting for inflation, the $2,000 public donation for the scholarship fund is more than double what the city initially approved for the memorial. It’s designed to make up for the years that the project went undone.
"Your donation will show the community at large that we live in a city that cares about doing the right thing and wants to foster that spirit in future generations as well," Ferguson told council members this week.
After accounting for the city donation, the scholarship fund has at least $9,101 pledged to it: $1,700 left over from an online fundraiser to pay for the memorial itself, $3,000 from the Northern Valley Labor Council union, $2,000 from truck bed manufacturer Retrax, $401 from Smiling Moose Rocky Mountain Deli, and, as of Monday, $2,000 from the city.
Ferguson said several other donations have trickled in since Monday, including $2 from her son, and at least one resident has hinted at yet another, presumably larger, donation.
If the fund reaches $10,000 within five years, its stewards can give out the scholarship each year in perpetuity via the Community Foundation of Grand Forks, Ferguson said.
To donate: visit gofoundation.org/give-fund.html and choose "Charles Thurber Memorial Scholarship fund" from the drop-down menu that asks "Which fund is this gift designated for?", or mail checks with "Charles Thurber Memorial Scholarship" in the memo to the Community Foundation of Grand Forks, East Grand Forks, and Region at 620 DeMers Ave., Grand Forks, N.D., 58201.
2020-10-09 18:00:00Z
https://www.grandforksherald.com/news/government-and-politics/6710614-23-years-later-Grand-Forks-makes-good-on-a-promise-to-commemorate-an-1880s-lynching-victim
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