Student helps erect historical marker for Delaware lynching

WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — A high school student's activism has persuaded Delaware to install a historical marker commemorating the state's only documented lynching.

The News Journal of Wilmington reports rising senior Savannah Shepherd was instrumental in getting the marker put up Sunday. It memorializes the 1903 lynching of laborer George White, who was accused of killing a white woman. A white mob thousands strong overpowered police and pulled him from his cell, then tortured and burned him alive.

Shepherd learned about the lynching at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Alabama, the nation's first memorial dedicated to the racial terror of African Americans during slavery and its aftermath.

She approached Sen. Darius Brown, who agreed to cover the marker's cost. He said public acknowledgment of the lynching is overdue.

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Information from: The News Journal of Wilmington, Del., http://www.delawareonline.com