On March 16, 1922, 19-year-old George Tompkins was found lynched in Riverside Park in Indianapolis. The 1922 death certificate said the young laborer had taken his own life, even though the coroner had visited the crime scene and declared, "The man could not have hanged himself." In 2022, for the 100th anniversary of George Tompkins’ murder, IRC dedicated a tombstone in Floral Park Cemetery where he is buried. At this time his death certificate was amended from "suicide" to "homicide." Genene Kambs, co-Chair of IRC, shares this update:
Hello Friends of Racial Justice Work:
On Friday, August 30 our group, the IRC, received notice that we are recipients of the 2025 AES Project Indiana Greenspace Grant. This follows five years of organizing, meeting, collaborating, listening, studying, conceptualizing, dreaming, networking and plain hard work that evolved from the first Civil Rights Pilgrimage to Montgomery. So, first of all, thank you for being a church that offers this possibility for its congregation.
From that first trip, a number of us came back determined to tell the truth about our racist past and in so doing we discovered that our past is still with us in ways we never understood. Bryan Stevenson, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, AL stresses the need to be in proximity with the people we wish to serve. This proximity has fueled our work and given us amazing opportunities to become allies with our Black brothers and sisters, to hear their truths and to honor them as they in turn honor our efforts.
It is through these relationships we have been able to earn an EJI Memorial Marker, only the second of its kind awarded in Indiana, despite 19 lynchings documented by the EJI between the end of Reconstruction and 1950.
The Greenspace grant we have received is to be used for the purpose of refreshing Municipal Gardens' Memorial Grove, a serene albeit neglected wooded area overlooking the White River across from the Riverside Regional Park where Tompkins’ body was found. It is in this spot we wish to place the Marker, and that is what the grant is for. This is a project management grant, so instead of money we will be receiving the services of Keep Indianapolis Beautiful. They will contract the clean up and design and implement plans for the space.
There are of course requirements for us to uphold. Our part, and quite frankly,the difficult part will be to find like-minded volunteers to help in all aspects of our involvement. As the Project Lead on Memorial Grove, I know I can only succeed with the help of others. Please pray for our group (and encourage St. Lukes' to participate once we have the details of who, what, where, when).
Finally, I wanted to tell you what Carey Hamilton, the Democratic Caucus Chair in the Indiana House of Representatives, told me just last week. In explaining our mission, she wanted to know who "we" was. I explained we are a group of volunteers from St. Luke's interested in furthering racial justice. When I told her about us, she commented that there was not a day that goes by that she doesn't hear about the wonderful things St. Luke's is doing. I thought you might want to know that.
Together I believe we are doing what Jesus wants us to do. Thank you for being at the epicenter of that faith.
Sincerely,
Genene Kambs, CoChair
Indiana Remembrance Coalition
St. Luke's UMC
Equality will never be realized until it stops being a Black fight and becomes a white demand...Mary McLeod Bethune