Headstone for George Marshall Clark (1861)

This gofundme is set up to commemorate George Marshall Clark. He is the only documented lynching victim in Milwaukee. Out of 16 lynching in the history of Wisconsin only one was black. In 1861, while walking in downtown Milwaukee with his roommate (James Sheldon) and two white women, they were stopped by two Irishmen who threw racial slurs at them. This interaction turned into a scuffle, which resulted in Sheldon stabbing and killing one of them. The police held both Clark and Sheldon at the Milwaukee Courthouse (which is now Cathedral Sqaure). The impatient mob decided to take justice into their own hands and when they came for Sheldon, he slipped into a conjoined cell and hid. So the mob took Clark, who pleaded that he wasn't responsible. They dragged him to the Engine House, where they held a mock trial. Then they dragged him to Buffalo and Water St. and lyched him from a pile driver! It is suspected that the officers were complicit in the planning and execution of Clark's murder. They were very scarcely staffed, on a day when a black man killed a white man in downtown Milwaukee, during the time of the civil war. out of the six people tried in Clark's lynching none of them were found guilty and likely do the fact that Clark had to pay the consequences for Shelton's crimes he was later also acquitted of all charges. (Shelton's case was ruled Self Defense) This story saddened me, and i wanted to pay my respects. But, it took two days to locate his burial plot, and when we did find it. The grave was unmarked. George Marshall Clark was 24 at the time of his death, in 1861. Lets come together get this man a headstone!