Black Holocaust Museum Founder Dies At 92

James Cameron narrowly escaped a lynching in 1930. He went on to start the Black Holocaust Museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In August 1930, he was falsely accused of killing a white man. Two of his friends were beaten and lynched by a mob of 15,000 before he was exonerated but sentenced to four years in prison. As was the case back then, no one was arrested, tried, or convicted of killing his friends.

In 1988, Cameron founded America’s Black Holocaust Museum to document racial injustices suffered by people of African heritage.

Fifteen years later, the Museum continues to grow in prominence and scope, however, of all his prized possessions, Cameron most cherishes a single letter received on February 3,1993, 62 years after his conviction. The letter grants a pardon and public apology from the State of Indiana.

How much has The State Of . . . Our criminal justice system changed since Cameron’s ordeal? African-American’s are still more likely to receive the death penalty for killing white people than whites are for killing blacks. Attorneys general today get elected to prominence by bragging on how many people they’ve sent to death row or how willing they are to practice this imperfect and discriminatory system. No matter how the lynching is conducted, when will we start to say “never again”?