Elegy for Mary Turner by Rachel Marie-Crane Williams

Author:Rachel Marie-Crane Williams
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Verso

Postscript: A Place to Lay Their Heads

by C. Tyrone Forehand (great-grandnephew of Hayes and Mary Turner)

Hayes Turner entered the world in August 1893 in Brooks County, Georgia. He was one of ten children born to John Wheeler Turner, Sr. and Charlotte Gay. In 1918, Hayes was falsely accused of complicity in the murder of Hampton Smith, a Brooks County farmer notorious for his brutal treatment of his farm laborers. Upon hearing that he had been implicated in the death of Smith, Hayes Turner fled. It was reported he had been hidden in a foxhole by his mother, who would sneak food and clothing to him in the dead of night. Following his lynching, Hayes was castrated by those responsible for this heinous act of violence. His father and mother pleaded for the return of his body, but their pleas went unanswered.

His siblings, Joseph, Mary, John Wheeler Jr., George, Julia, Willie, Naomi, and Norman were tormented for many years by the memory of their brother’s horrific murder. Questions posed by their children and grandchildren regarding the murder of their brother would always result in an overwhelming sense of sadness, accompanied by a distant and terrifying stare, which led one to believe that they were actually witnessing this dreadful act of terror. A deafening silence would follow as tears began to flow.

Hayes wed Mary Hattie Graham, born in 1885 to Perry W. and Betty Graham. Mary was the second of five children born to her parents. The lives of her sisters and brothers, Pearlie, Perry G., Otha, and Etha were forever changed by the lynching. After speaking out against her husband’s murder, Mary took her two small children, Ocie Lee and Leaster, to members of her family for safekeeping. They were reared under assumed names.

Rufus Morrison was only ten years old when he was hiding in a cornfield along Ryalls Road in the town of Barney and witnessed Mary Turner’s execution. The memory of a frightened and bewildered woman was forever etched in his mind as he saw the mob tie a rope to her ankles and hoist her upside down from a tree. They taunted and jeered a terrified Mary as they began to roast her alive. One of the members of the mob took a swig of moonshine from a jug and spat it on her as another dared him to slit open her abdomen where her unborn child was oblivious to the fate which was about to befall it. Upon rupturing her womb, the birthing matter which provided nourishment to her unsuspecting baby spewed over three of Mary’s executioners. It was reported throughout the years that each of those whom the birthing matter touched died horrific deaths: one shouted on his deathbed, “Get that nigga baby off of me!” After crushing the head of Mary’s baby with his boot, one mob member placed his cigar in the jug of moonshine and used it to mark the ground where the life of Mary and her baby were taken. Those who

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