The Abraham Lincoln Presidential and Library joined with the Springfield community on Friday to honor two men killed in racial violence more than a century ago by filling jars with soil from the spots where they were lynched.
The jars honoring the memory of Scott Burton and William Donnegan will be displayed at the ALPLM as part of its special exhibit “The Second American Revolution.” When that exhibit closes in January, the soil will be given to the Equal Justice Initiative’s Legacy Museum, which has collected about 800 soil samples from lynching sites.
Burton and Donnegan were lynched when white mobs ran wild in Springfield Aug. 14-16, 1908. The rioters burned Black-owned businesses and homes and attacked Black residents, many of whom fled the city for their safety. The National Guard had to be brought in to restore order.
“Illinois history is full of moments to celebrate, but there are also moments to mourn. We must remember Burton, Donnegan and the violence of 1908 so we understand the hard work required to build a nation of justice,” said ALPLM Executive Director Christina Shutt.
“Keeping our history before us is important for all generations. Knowing our past will help us navigate our future so we can live together peacefully,” said Candice Trees, vice chair of the Illinois State Museum Society Board.
The riots of 1908 began when two African American men were being held in the county jail, one charged with killing a white man and the other with raping a white woman. Thousands of people gathered at the jail to seize the prisoners and kill them, but police managed to sneak the prisoners out and send them to safety. Enraged, the mob began a rampage targeting the city’s Black residents and their property.
During the first night of violence, the mob went to the home of Burton, a barber. They pulled him out of the house, beat him savagely, dragged him to his shop about a block away and hanged him from a tree with a clothesline. Afterward, they mutilated his body, riddled it with bullets and burned the barbershop.
The violence continued the next day. In the evening, crowds surrounded the home of Donnegan, an elderly Black man who owned a significant amount of property and had a white wife. They beat Donnegan, slashed his throat and hanged him. He survived long enough to be taken to a hospital but died the next morning.
Friday’s ceremony took place near the location of Burton’s home. Members of the community took turns scooping up earth and placing it in a jar bearing Burton’s name. Soil from the site of Donnegan’s home – near the Illinois State Museum’s current location – was brought to the ceremony so it could be placed in a separate jar.
The horrifying violence in Abraham Lincoln’s hometown shocked much of the nation and helped lead to creation of the NAACP. The Springfield 1908 Race Riot National Monument was created in 2024.
“It is vital that we remember and acknowledge history, not for the sake of history but to understand the underlying cause and effects of acts that led to destruction as to not repeat them,” said Gwendolyn Harrison, director of Springfield’s Lincoln Library.
The presidential library’s “Second American Revolution” exhibit explores the efforts to rebuild America after the Civil War to match Lincoln’s vision and then documents the backlash that gave rise to Jim Crow laws and decades of oppression. The jars honoring Burton and Donnegan will be displayed there through Jan. 17 and then sent to the Legacy Museum, part of a network of civil rights sites in Montgomery, Ala.
