Thomas Finch
To read the full narrative of this historical event, visit its Stories From The Soil entry.
Soil Collection | May 18, 2019
May 18, 2019
Bryant O’Hara, a relative of Thomas Finch, described the jar of soil as a “time capsule as well as a memorial”.
Listen to Thomas Finch's story on WABE, reported by Stephannie Stokes.
“Stories From The Soil” by Cleo Corinne
This original poem was read during the event.
shhhhhhh
secrets
stories
sorrow
silence…
stillness now consumes the space
where struggle and strength once stood.
shhhhhhh
as the soil sings of how
secrets
begat stories
that begat sorrow
that begat silence…
as the soil screams
for the souls of sisters and sons,
as the stench of social sin
seeps slowly to the sky.
this soil-a stage for the sacrilegious
and the segregation sold to these
superficially united states.
stories from the soil
still striving to be shared.
and so…
racial injustice floats
along the the surface of
our nation’s fiber like
an unassuming iceberg-
just a piece, a fraction
of a larger ideological identity.
that iceberg, cold and slow-moving
like the progress of this nation.
592 reported lynchings,
60 years,
1 state.
592 lives deemed unworthy of
fairness, of a future…of their own flesh,
60 years of loved ones stolen before sunrise,
1 southern state supporting a
system of savagery and stereotypes.
and this is just the tip
of the iceberg.
shhhhhhh
secrets
stories
sorrow
silence…
a moment
for
Annie Laurie Shepard
Bud Cotton
Edward Brown
Henry Bingham
John Bigby
Tip Hutson
Clem Rhodes
Floyd Carmichael
Frank Fambro
Frank Smith
George Wilder
James Fletcher
Leola Maddox
Mack Brown
Milton Brown
Sam Magruder-McSaunders
Sam Robinson
Sterling Thompson
Thomas Finch
Warren Powell
Will Marion
Will Moreland
William Henry Welch
and Zeb Long.
a moment,
for the many who are
unnamed but not unknown-
the other side of the iceberg-
the stories from the soil.