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A Lynching in Marion. Wisconsin Public Television, 1995). 30 mins. (PBS Video, 1320 Braddock Pl., Alexandria, VA 22314-1638)
In August 1930 sixteen-year-old James Cameron allowed two older friends to talk him into a joint attempt to rob a young couple on an isolated lover's lane outside Marion, Indiana. When Cameron recognized the man as someone who had patronized his shoeshine stand, he fled, but his friends remained. As Cameron ran, he heard shots.
Police took Cameron from his home later that night and forced him to sign a confession for attempted murder (the young man died of his wounds) and rape. The next evening a crowd, estimated at ten thousand, gathered outside the Marion jail, infuriated by the rumor that three black youths had killed a white man and raped a...