Death of Black voting rights activist will finally be memorialized in Lexington | Opinion

Who deserves public honor? Who deserves to occupy the public memory or be integral to the public mythos? That was a central question at the heart of the Take Back Cheapside movement which was tied to our highest-level goal: removing the Confederate monuments of John Hunt Morgan and John C. Breckinridge from the space formerly known as Cheapside in Lexington.

This wasn’t our only goal, nor was it the most ambitious one. Our third point, to make our downtown square an inclusive space for Black people, loomed large after Oct. 17, 2017. We have always understood that the work required to accomplish this goal will continue beyond us with our community and with the next generation.

In 2016, the Equal Justice Initiative announced its plans for the Lynching Memorial in Montgomery, Alabama, and we were captivated by the potential of bringing these monuments to Lexington. We saw this as one of many ways to accomplish the third point of the plan.

EJI documented four lynchings in Fayette County that will soon be acknowledged by two different historical markers. The first one has been a long time coming, and none of this would have been possible without the persistence of the Blue Grass Community Foundation, the Lexington Black Prosperity Initiative, Hadeel Abdallah, and a host of community partners. We are proud to finally have the opportunity to properly honor the life and legacy of R.C.O. Benjamin, at a time when Black voting power is being diluted across the South.

Robert Charles O’Hara Benjamin was a lawyer, minister, journalist, poet and activist, born March 31, 1855, on the island of St. Kitts. After becoming a naturalized citizen to the United States in 1876, he would spend the rest of his life advocating for the equal rights of African Americans. He was the first Black man admitted to the bar in California and was a practicing lawyer in several other states, he owned and operated multiple newspapers across the country, and he often spoke out publicly against lynchings and condemned violence towards Black people.

Mr. Benjamin was an advocate for voting rights 70 years prior to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

In 1891, while living in San Francisco, he gave a lecture called “The Negro Problem, and the Method of Its Solution.” He addressed a range of issues, including the importance of education, owning property and staying resilient for future generations. Mr. Benjamin reminded the audience of the power of being an informed voter, and shared wisdom that still resonates almost 130 years later.

“Don’t allow yourself to be dictated to; but exercise your own judgment with the ballot,” he said. “Cast your own vote and influence where your interests lie. Respect no man that will question your title to patriotic manhood.”

In 1897, after previously teaching in Kentucky, he moved back to Lexington with his wife and two children, where he continued his advocacy and was a prominent figure at Pleasant Green Baptist Church. On Oct. 2, 1900, after helping register Black voters at Precinct 32, where the Lexington Convention Center sits today, he was beaten by a white poll worker named Michael Moynihan.

Moynihan was initially arrested and then released from police custody. Later that evening he returned to the precinct, followed Mr. Benjamin, and shot him six times in the back, killing him while claiming self-defense. R.C.O. Benjamin was 45 years old, and he is buried in African Cemetery No. 2. Ten thousand people attended his funeral. In 1910, a monument was commissioned featuring the inscription of his favorite poem, “To A Child,” by William Wordsworth.

“Small service is true service while it lasts.

Of friends however humble. Scorn not one.

The daisy, by the shadow that it casts,

Protects the lingering dewdrop from the sun.”

We invite you to join us at the unveiling of the marker for R.C.O. Benjamin on Saturday, June 20, at 4 p.m. at Gatton Park on the Town Branch.

Russell Allen is an organizer and artist based in Lexington. DeBraun Thomas is a musician and activist based in Lexington.