Ed Johnson's Grave, Pleasant Garden Cemetery

My dear wife and I frequently walk in the  long abandoned Pleasant Garden Cemetery near our home. It is a poignant place, filled with memories of a distant time, of past cultures, of old truths, of an increasingly distant history. 

Pleasant Garden is a Black cemetery. It served Chattanooga's Black community for more than 100 years until the social upheavals of the 50s and 60s made an anachronism of separate burial grounds .

This afternoon was especially sober. The late sunlight filtered through the trees, making early spring patterns on last fall's leaves. It was quiet, only the rustling of wind among the trees, and the distant sound of traffic.  It was peaceful. It was, indeed, pleasant.

Up a rise from our path we saw the old plastic tulips still keeping quiet sentinel over Ed Johnson's grave.

Johnson died in 1906. He was victim of Chattanooga's last public lynching.

Some time ago, I shared in Blipfoto a photograph of the grave and some thoughts about Ed Johnson. Tonight, once again, I was caught by the fading light, the interplay of the light on the bare trees and fallen leaves. The plastic tulips over the grave were placed there more than a year ago by some unknown, and there they've maintained vigil.

The world has changed since 1906. I wonder tonight, however, have people changed? Many of us, especially in my country, claim to adhere to the primary tenet of Christianity, that is, Love. 

Ed Jones was lynched in love? The newly developing US policies on refugees are in love? Times change. Do people?

Love is an ideal for which we claim to work. We claim to seek love in our hearts. We claim to share love with others. Certainly, love is an ideal of worth.

Personal opinion now:  love is a goal toward which me must continue to strive, in spite of our human failings, in spite of our weaknesses, in spite of our humanness! 

Keep smilin'

Oh...  In 2000 Ed Johnson was acquitted of the 1906 crime for which he was lynched. See: http://www.nytimes.com/2000/02/27/us/lynching-victim-is-cleared-of-rape-100-years-later.html.