Audio clip
LaFrederick Thirkill
LaFrederick Thirkill wanted to make sure that lynching victim Ed Johnson’s story remained a part of Chattanooga history.
So Mr. Thirkill, assistant principal at Apison Elementary School, established a scholarship in Mr. Johnson’s honor. Mr. Johnson, a black man, was lynched on the Walnut Street Bridge in 1906 after being accused of raping a white woman.
“Even if he’s not in history books, whoever applies for the scholarship will know about Ed Johnson,” Mr. Thirkill said.
Mr. Thirkill established the scholarship in 2006 and made the first award of $1,000 to Katherine Williams this month.
Ms. Williams, a student at Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C., could not be reached for comment.
TO DONATE
Make donations to: Ed Johnson Memorial Scholarship Fund
Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga, Inc.
1270 Market St.
Chattanooga, TN 37402
or call 265-0586
The scholarship is awarded to students from Chattanooga with a minimum 2.5 GPA who are criminal justice majors in their sophomore year in college.
The scholarship is intended to be awarded annually, but it took him three years to find a student meeting the criteria, Mr. Thirkill said.
The scholarship is an example of how triumph can come from tragedy, said Briston Smith, a local electrician.
In the play “Dead Innocent,” written by Mr. Thirkill, Mr. Smith portrayed local attorney Noah Parden, who defended Mr. Johnson.
“Ed Johnson was innocent,” Mr. Smith said. “He was killed, but the end result is that with the scholarship, someone’s future will benefit because of his (Mr. Johnson’s) past.”
The 1906 case drew national attention and may have led to a reduction in lynchings across the nation, according to news reports.
The number of lynchings started to drop after the U.S. Supreme Court found Hamilton County Sheriff Joseph F. Shipp and others in contempt of court for not adequately protecting Mr. Johnson from a mob while he was in jail, according to former Dallas Morning News and Chattanooga Times reporter Mark Curriden.
Mr. Curriden and retired local attorney Leroy Phillips co-wrote a book titled “Contempt of Court” about the Johnson case.
A lynch mob kidnapped Mr. Johnson from the Hamilton County Jail and hanged him on the bridge at night on March 19, 1906, Mr. Phillips said.
Mr. Phillips helped get Mr. Johnson’s conviction reversed in 1999.
Mr. Thirkill got involved in the story after reading about Mr. Phillips’ book and research on Mr. Johnson. He also organized a cleanup of Pleasant Gardens Cemetery, where Mr. Johnson is buried.
Yolanda Putman has been a reporter at the Times Free Press for 11 years. She covers housing and previously covered education and crime. Yolanda is a Chattanooga native who has a master’s degree in communication from the University of Tennessee and a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Alabama State University. She previously worked at the Lima (Ohio) News. She enjoys running, reading and writing and is the mother of one son, Tyreese. She has also ...
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