Yzavia Haney of Roanoke, center, right, hugs Teresa Smith, a relative of the 1893 lynching victim Thomas Smith, during a ceremony to unveil a memorial at Franklin Road and Mountain Avenue on Wednesday.
SCOTT P. YATES, The Roanoke Times
The Roanoke Coalition of the Equal Justice Initiative's Community Remembrance Project unveiled a historical marker about the 1893 lynching of Thomas Smith during a ceremony at Franklin Road and Mountain Avenue Wednesday.
SCOTT P. YATES, The Roanoke Times
Roanoke City Councilman Bill Bestpitch, left, and Rev. Amy Hodge collect a soil sample from near the site of the 1893 lynching of Thomas Smith Wednesday.
SCOTT P. YATES, The Roanoke Times
Members of the Roanoke Coalition of the Equal Justice Initiative's Community Remembrance Project unveil a historical marker to acknowledge in proper context the 1893 lynching of Thomas Smith.
SCOTT P. YATES, The Roanoke Times
A man feels the lettering of an historical marker about the 1893 lynching of Thomas Smith.
SCOTT P. YATES, The Roanoke Times
Roanoke Mayor Sherman Lea, center, attends the Roanoke Coalition of the Equal Justice Initiative's Community Remembrance Project unveiling of a historical marker about the 1893 lynching of Thomas Smith Wednesday.
A Roanoke racial justice group planted a blue historical marker Wednesday near the city intersection where newspaper accounts documented the hanging of a Black man by a white mob nearly 130 years ago.
Yzavia Haney of Roanoke, center, right, hugs Teresa Smith, a relative of the 1893 lynching victim Thomas Smith, during a ceremony to unveil a memorial at Franklin Road and Mountain Avenue on Wednesday.
The Roanoke Coalition of the Equal Justice Initiative's Community Remembrance Project unveiled a historical marker about the 1893 lynching of Thomas Smith during a ceremony at Franklin Road and Mountain Avenue Wednesday.
Roanoke City Councilman Bill Bestpitch, left, and Rev. Amy Hodge collect a soil sample from near the site of the 1893 lynching of Thomas Smith Wednesday.
Members of the Roanoke Coalition of the Equal Justice Initiative's Community Remembrance Project unveil a historical marker to acknowledge in proper context the 1893 lynching of Thomas Smith.
Roanoke Mayor Sherman Lea, center, attends the Roanoke Coalition of the Equal Justice Initiative's Community Remembrance Project unveiling of a historical marker about the 1893 lynching of Thomas Smith Wednesday.
