Every year on June 10, the Lawrence, Kansas Branch of the NAACP invites the community to gather and commemorate the victims of the 1882 Kansas River bridge lynching.

This year, for the first time, attendees could lay carnations directly on graves of Isaac King, George Robertson and Peter Vinegar.

Ursula Minor, president of the local NAACP, didn’t know where the victims were buried when she and fellow chapter members worked on the Lynching Memorial Project that was unveiled in 2022.

“To know that their bodies were there and know where they’re at — that just was mind blowing for me,” she said. “And it just makes me feel good that we get that history out there, because I feel like if the community does not stand together and look at the history that’s happened in Lawrence — you have to do that to move forward.”

Folks gathered Wednesday for a marker dedication that memorialized the names and stories of 30 Black people who were buried in previously unmarked graves at Oak Hill Cemetery, including King, Robertson and Peter.

Minor told attendees that as the federal government tries to erase Black history, the project is a permanent reminder that Black history is American history. By dedicating the markers, Minor said, they were reclaiming a piece of Lawrence’s soul.

“A cemetery is not just a place of rest. It is a repository for stories,” she said. “For too long, the lives and the contributions and humanity of these 30 individuals were left in the shadows of history. But history cannot be buried forever, and it cannot be erased when we choose to speak their names.”

During the ceremony, Kerry Altenbernd, the chair of the Community Coordination and History Committee within the local NAACP, described the events leading up to and following the 1882 lynching.

King, Robertson and Peter were murdered by a white mob atop the Kansas River bridge for defending Margaret “Sis” Vinegar, Peter’s 14-year-old daughter, who was raped by a white man. 

Altenbernd said local papers reported that the Black men and Margaret lured the white man out to murder him and take his money.

“That’s what the papers all said. They didn’t put the other stories, the stories of the people that were there,” he said. “They didn’t bother to interview them.”

Margaret, too, was arrested and almost killed by a mob that ultimately voted against her lynching by a margin of one. She remained in the federal penitentiary at Leavenworth until she died of tuberculosis at 20 years old.

Altenbernd said they were unable to locate Margaret’s body. However, those wandering the cemetery can now see her cenotaph next to Peter’s marker.

“We wanted to make sure she could lie with her father at his grave,” Altenbernd said.

King, Robertson and Peter are three of the approximately 1,100 people buried in Potter’s Field at Oak Hill. Yellow flags dotted the grass, highlighting the fresh markers that name 30 Black people buried in the field, plus three unnamed children.

Before the NAACP’s project, the field had fewer than 10 gravestones, Altenbernd said.

“There are a lot of burials up here that have no markers, and maybe never will, but at least there are 30 more who have their names and dates etched in granite,” he said.

Altenbernd led the crowd in speaking the names of the lynching victims. Project collaborators also read all of the names on the markers.

As researcher Jeanne Klein read, at times she would gesture familiarly to the field, indicating where someone was buried.

Klein said that by the end of the project, she felt a deep connection with each person. She selected many of the names that appear on the headstones, aiming to include a cross-section of Black experiences of the time, and wrote biographies for each person.

People can read the bios online here or access them in person in archives at the University of Kansas and in the history room at the Lawrence Public Library.

Rachel Williams-Glenn, a pastor at St. Luke AME Church, led attendees in prayer and song before they split off to wander the field and lay flowers by markers. 

“Love transcends the grave, it transcends time and space, and even though at the moments of their passing there are 30 people whose graves did not get marked, today we write what history tried to forget,” Williams-Glenn said.

After the ceremony, Minor said her next steps are to get a sign marking Potter’s Field. She and the history committee are also looking to see if descendants of the folks with markers still live in Lawrence.

She encouraged anyone who is interested to join the local NAACP chapter. People can learn how to register via the NAACP’s website or Facebook, or by sending an email to [email protected].

Read more about the NAACP’s work to locate the graves in this article.

Here are the names memorialized in Potter’s Field:
Hagar Allen, Isaac Allen, Israel Allen, William Allen, Lettie Anthony, Brazil Bradley, Elias L. Bradley, Frances E. Bradley, Jennie Bradley, Alex Clayton and three children, James W. Hoyt, Joshua Jackson, Isaac King, Henry McGee, Randolph Morgan, Harry Reeves, George Robertson, General (Lee) Shepherd, Juda Shepherd, Peter Shepherd, Anna Strode, Ann Eliza Thurston, Maggie B. Thurston, Sarah Thurston, Ulysses S. Thurston, Eliza Vinegar, Margaret “Sis” Vinegar, Peter Vinegar, Richard Voorhees, Edward P. Washington and Albert “Shuck” Wood.

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Wulfe Wulfemeyer (they/them), reporter and news editor, has worked with The Lawrence Times since May 2025. They can be reached at [email protected].

Read their complete bio here. Read their work for the Times here.

Nathan Kramer (he/him), a multimedia student journalist for The Lawrence Times since August 2024, is a recent graduate of Free State High School. He also served as a news photo editor for Free State’s student publication, where he worked as a videographer, photographer and motion designer. See more of his work for the Times here.

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Nathan Kramer / Lawrence Times

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Every year on June 10, the local NAACP invites the community to gather and commemorate the victims of the 1882 Kansas River bridge lynching. This year, for the first time, attendees could lay carnations directly on graves of Isaac King, George Robertson and Peter Vinegar.

Molly Adams / Lawrence Times

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Lawrence’s NAACP chapter is welcoming the community to a marker dedication for 30 Black people who were buried in previously unmarked graves in Oak Hill Cemetery. A commemoration of the 1882 lynching victims will follow.

Molly Adams / Lawrence Times

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Lawrence’s NAACP chapter will reclaim the stories of 30 Black people who were buried in unmarked graves in Oak Hill Cemetery, including three men lynched by a mob in 1882, with new granite headstones and a digital biography archive.

Molly Adams/Lawrence Times

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Margaret ”Sis” Vinegar, like countless other Black girls and women of her day and beyond, never saw justice during her short life. But she is now memorialized in Lawrence’s history with a marker, dedicated in her honor Saturday evening.

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Every year on June 10, the local NAACP invites the community to gather and commemorate the victims of the 1882 Kansas River bridge lynching. This year, for the first time, attendees could lay carnations directly on graves of Isaac King, George Robertson and Peter Vinegar.

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