Guilford County’s only documented lynching occurred in 1887 at a location described vaguely at the time as on or near “Mr. Jackson’s farm.” That farm was located in the general area of the Presbyterian Church of the Covenant in College Hill. The Guilford County Community Remembrance Project has researched the lynching and will make a presentation this month to a virtual meeting of the City of Greensboro’s Ad-hoc Committee on African American Disparity.
The meeting will be held Thursday February 23 at 6 p.m. via Zoom:
Meeting ID: 915 1305 6243
Passcode: 793452
Dial by Phone: 301 715 8592
“We are working to bring awareness to the legacy of lynching and racial terror in Guilford County,” project organizer Terry Hammond said in 2020, when a similar presentation was planned at the church. It was canceled when public gatherings were banned because of the pandemic.
“In the only documented lynching in Guilford County, Eugene Hairston, a 17-year-old African-American from Kernersville, was accused of assaulting a white 17-year old woman from Colfax. He was ‘taken into the suburbs of the city, in the neighborhood of Mr. Jackson’s farm and hanged near the little brick school house,’ the Greensboro Morning News reported on August 26, 1887.
“After months of research, the location has been determined to be close to the present day Presbyterian Church of the Covenant and Jackson Street/Walker Avenue.”
Among the news overage of the Remembrance Project are an editorial in the News & Record, Our Opinion: Light unto darkness; and front-page features in the News and Record and Triad City Beat.
