Approximately 75 people turned out in the extreme heat on Sunday to unveil a memorial marker on the north side of the Oconee County Courthouse in Watkinsville to recognize the lynching of nine individuals on that site 120 years ago.
The marker lists the names of the eight persons who lost their lives to the mob violence–one miraculously survived–and notes that the 1905 lynching was one of the deadliest such events in Georgia history.
“There was no justice,” Marvin Nunnally, deacon at Watkinsville’s Bethel Baptist Church told the gathering.
Watkinsville Mayor Brian Brodrick thanked the local Black community and “our historians and researchers and advocates who refused to let a tragedy be forgotten.”
Oconee County Commission Chair John Daniell said the nine victims were denied their rights and “we're here to recognize their deaths and the wrong that was done to them today.”
The city and county worked with local black leaders, including Marvin Nunnally and his cousin, Rev. Joseph Nunnally, pastor of Rock Hill Baptist Church in Greene County and a member of Bethel Baptist Church, to place the marker at the Courthouse.
Rev. Nunnally introduced the program on Sunday afternoon saying “We are here for the explicit purpose of unveiling and dedicating this memorial and remembrance of individuals whose life was tragically cut short 120 years ago on this particular date.”
Historical Record
According to a 1998 account of the event by University of Georgia Law Professor Donald E. Wilkes Jr., the lynching began about 2 a.m. on June 29, 1905, “when a masked mob of around 40 to 100 men in buggies or on horseback silently entered Watkinsville with military precision.”
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| Marker Unveiled 6/29/2025 |
The mob forced the town marshal to open the door to the jail and the lone jailor on duty to give up the keys to the cells.
The prisoners in the jail were Lon J. Aycock, Claude Elder, brothers Lewis Robinson and Rich Robinson, Sandy Price, Rich Allen, Bob Harris, Gene Yerby, and Joe Patterson.
All but Aycock were Black.
The nine were marched to a corner of a lot near the jail and tied to a fence. The mob fired volleys of shots from riffles, shotguns, and pistols into the line of prisoners,
Somehow, Patterson survived.
“These events were part of a broader era of racial violence and injustice that terrorized Black communities across the south,” the marker reads.
No one was ever held accountable for the killings.
The marker says it “stands in remembrance of the lives lost and as a testament to the ongoing efforts to acknowledge and confront the history of racial violence in Georgia.”
Government Leaders Comment
“We've been talking about this memorial for quite some time,” Commission Chair Daniell said when Rev. Nunnally called him to the podium as the first speaker on Sunday. “I want to thank Mayor Brodrick for pushing it over the finish line.”
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| Daniell 6/29/2025 |
“It was on this date between one o'clock and two o'clock this morning, where an angry mob stormed into the jail and took nine of the 10 prisoners out and stripped them of all their due process and took their lives--all except for one. One man survived from this.”
Mayor Brodrick said “there's been some sentiment locally that we should just let things be, that nobody really knows what happened, so just let it be.”
“I couldn't disagree more with that sentiment because we know--we know at least one thing happened here today,” he continued. “As John said, nine men were forcibly removed from the jail."
“The old jail doesn't stand anymore," Brodrick continued. "Probably a hot day like today. There's no air conditioning in there. The middle of the night. Nine men were removed. Eight of them were shot and killed.”
“No judge. No jury. No justice,” Brodrick said. “Their lives were lost.”
“But 120 years is a long time to wait,” he said. “Not for justice, not for vengeance, but for recognition. Not to reopen wounds, but to acknowledge them.”
“We gather, not because we were responsible in any way for what happened,” Brodrick said, “but because we can’t allow it to be forgotten.”
“We don't do this to dwell in guilt,” he continued, “but we do it to own the truth.”
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| Brodrick 6/29/2025 |
“We do it not because we're afraid of the past,” he said, “but because we're hopeful for the future.”
“So yes, 120 years is a long time to wait,” Brodrick said, “but I believe it's not too late for the families, for the victims."
“And my greatest hope is that this memorial brings some peace and something positive for the spirits of all those whose lives were lost that day 120 years ago, and to the families that remain.”
Marvin Nunnally
“We can't change the past,” Marvin Nunnally said. “That's just the bottom line. We can't change the past.”
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| Marvin Nunnally 6/29/2025 |
“But I'm just so happy that we come together today, in a spirit of comradery, a spirit of unity, because we are looking forward to a better Oconee County, a better Watkinsville, Georgia. That’s why we are here today.”
“And so we're just happy today that we've come together,” he said. “Rich people, poor people. Black people, White people. All of us who make up this great, great Oconee County, this great town called Watkinsville.”
Marvin Nunnally read out the names of the victims of the mob violence.
“We know there was no justice,” he said.
Marvin Nunnally, Rev. Nunnally, Daniell, and Brodrick joined in the official unveiling of the marker.
Video
The video below was recorded by Harold Thompson at my request, since I was out of town on Sunday.
Daniell began his comments at 2:28 in the video.
Brodrick began speaking at 3:23 in the video.
Marvin Nunnally began speaking at 7:19 in the video.
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