A Lynching In South: Justice for Willie Leaphart Part 2

Part 2: Justice for Willie Leaphart: My Interview is with Mike Burgess is the Lead Teacher for the Center for Law and Global Policy Development at River Bluff High School in Lexington, South Carolina. The Center for Law and Global Policy Development is a two-year program housed at River Bluff High School that is available to all Junior and Seniors of the five high schools in Lexington County School District One. The program focuses on leadership development and policy creation in the areas of law, politics, and foreign affairs. In June 2022, Mr. Burgess will have completed his 27th year as a public high school history teacher in South Carolina. Mike Burgess and his family have attended St. Stephens since January 2011. He is married to his college sweetheart Chrystal and has four children- Caylee, Jackson, Manning, and Madelyn who all attend, or have attended, Lexington County School District One schools. The Burgess family has participated in a variety of programs in the church life of St. Stephens. Currently, Burgess serves on Church Council. A lifelong American Revolution historian and resident of South Carolina, Mr. Burgess received the 2022 South Carolina VFW High School Teacher of the Year Award at a banquet in February. In 2014, Burgess was the South Carolina Sons of the American Revolution Teacher of the Year. Mr. Burgess received his BA in History from the University of South Carolina in 1993 and his MAT from the same university in 1995.

LEXINGTON — On May 5, 1890, a Black teenager named Willie Leaphart sat in a Lexington County cell waiting on a new trial ordered by the governor after evidence surfaced proving his innocence in the attempted rape of a White girl.

But the 17-year-old never had a chance to win his exoneration. An angry mob of 100 burst into the Main Street jail and poured dozens of bullets into him.

Leaphart had just become the county’s first recorded lynching victim. Ten more would follow through 1921.

It’s a story that likely would remain obscured if not for the efforts of Michael Burgess, a River Bluff High School history teacher who began digging into Leaphart’s fate in March after a student asked whether the county had ever had a lynching.

Since then, he’s given lectures on Leaphart’s story to community organizations and helped co-found a group, the Lexington County Truth and Reconciliation Collaboration, dedicated to accurately chronicling the area’s racially complex history.

River Bluff High School history teacher Michael Burgess orients himself along Main Street in Lexington as he compares the location of a courthouse in jail from 1890 against modern-day buildings. Adam Benson/Staff

The group wants to see a marker erected at the site of Leaphart’s murder, and Burgess hopes to eventually win him a pardon.

Burgess envisions town hall-style talks, cultural events and other education functions in the county of 300,000 — South Carolina’s sixth largest — with Leaphart’s death a springboard.

In the tale of Leaphart, Burgess saw a timely symbol of Lexington’s need for reconciliation and honesty in a period of turmoil and upheaval.

“What happened on this site has completely disappeared. It’s just not talked about,” Burgess said steps from where Leaphart was shot. A historical marker nearby describes the history and construction of the courthouse grounds.

“It’s hard to build a diverse, tolerant community when you haven’t engaged in the reality of the past. We’re losing the roots of our story,” Burgess said. “This community has ignored this and other pieces of history and there are still racial issues in Lexington, and the ability to begin to address those begins with accountability of the past.”

#Lynching #Justice #Healing #

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