James Cameron (activist)
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James Cameron (February 23, 1914 in La Crosse, Wisconsin - June 11, 2006 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin) was a civil rights activist. He founded America's Black Holocaust Museum in Milwaukee. At the time of his death, he was America's only known survivor of a lynching.
Dr. James Cameron is founder of America’s Black Holocaust Museum in Milwaukee, WI and author of A Time of Terror, an autobiography of Cameron’s personal ordeal with racism at the hands of a Ku Klux Klan organized lynch mob. In August, 1930, when Cameron was 16 years old, he and two teenage friends,Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith, were accused of the murder of a young white man in Marion, IN. As a result, Cameron and his two friends were brutally lynched by a mob of 15,000 at the Grant County Courthouse Square.
Cameron witnessed the deaths of his friends, but, miraculously, young Cameron survived his attempted lynching. Yet, because of the criminal charges against him, he was immediately sentenced and served time in a state prison before his parole four years later. No one was ever accused, arrested or charged with the murders of Cameron’s teenage friends, nor for the beating Cameron suffered.
Because of his personal experience, Cameron has dedicated his life to promoting civil rights, racial unity and equality. His commitment is evidenced by his founding the first chapters of the NAACP in Indiana during the 1940s—a time in which the State of Indiana was noted as the Ku Klux Klan capital of America. Cameron went on to establish and become the first president of the NAACP Madison County Branch in Anderson, IN.
Additionally, Cameron also served as the Indiana State Director of Civil Liberties from 1942—1950. In this capacity, Cameron reported to then Governor of Indian Henry Shricker on violations of the “equal accommodations” laws to end previously mandated segregation. During his eight-year tenure, Cameron investigated over 25 incidents of civil rights infractions and faced many acts of violence and death threats for his work.
His civil rights work in Indiana provoked repeated threats of violence against him and his family. By the early 1950s, the continual emotional toll caused by these threats prompted Cameron to search for a safer home for his wife and five children. He decided to relocate to Wisconsin. In Wisconsin, Cameron continued his work in civil rights by assisting in protests to end segregated housing in the city of Milwaukee.
At the national level, Cameron participated in both marches on Washington in the 1960s, the first with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the second with Dr. King’s widow Coretta and Rev. Jesse Jackson. From 1955 to 1989, Cameron published literally hundreds of articles and booklets detailing civil rights and occurrences of racial injustices, including What is Equality in American Life?; The Lingering Problem of Reconstruction in American Life: Black Suffrage; and The Second Civil Rights Bill.
After an inspiring visit to the Yad Veshem Holocaust Memorial in Israel, Cameron founded America’s Black Holocaust Museum in 1988 to document injustices suffered by people of African heritage in the United States. His inspiration is now one of the larges African American museums in the country and receives over 50,000 annual visitors.
Dr. James Cameron passed away June 11, 2006 at the age of 92. His mission and vision, of an America, free of the evils of racism, will continue.
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[edit] Career
Because of this personal experience, Cameron dedicated his life to promoting civil rights, racial peace, unity and equality. His commitment was evident by his founding of three NAACP chapters in Indiana during the 1940s, and becoming the first president of the NAACP Madison County Branch in Anderson, Indiana. Cameron also served as the Indiana State Director of Civil Liberties from 1942-1950. In this capacity Cameron reported to then Governor of Indiana , Henry F. Schricker on violations of the "equal accommodations" laws to end previously mandated segregation.
During his eight-year tenure, Cameron investigated over 25 incidents of civil rights infractions and faced many acts of violence and death threats for his work. Repeated threats of violence against his family forced Cameron to relocate to his birth state of Wisconsin in the early 1950s. Cameron continued his work in civil rights by assisting in protests to end segregated housing in the City of Milwaukee.
[edit] Activism
During the 1960's, Cameron participated in both marches on Washington; the first with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the second with Dr. King's widow Coretta Scott King and the Reverend Jesse Jackson. During the seventies Cameron published hundreds of articles and booklets detailing civil rights and occurrences of racial injustices. In 1988, Cameron founded America's Black Holocaust Museum to document racial injustices suffered by people of African heritage.
[edit] Death
Cameron died on June 11, 2006 after suffering from lymphoma for about five years. He is buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Milwaukee.
[edit] Legacy
The Milwaukee Common Council is working to rename four blocks of West North Avenue, from North King Drive to North 7th Street, in honor of James Cameron. The name is honorary and was approved by the council's Public Works Committee on September 13, 2006; it now goes before the full council.[1]
[edit] Published works
- Cameron, James. A Time of Terror: A Survivor’s Story, Black Classics Press, 1982.
[edit] Sources
- Carr, Cynthia, Our Town: A Heartland Lynching, A Haunted Town, and the Hidden History of White America, 2007, Randon House.
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- ^ Sandler, Larry. "Street could be renamed for good Samaritan who died", Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 2006-08-30.
