Editing Marion, Indiana (section)

===1930 lynching===
{{main|Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith}}
[[Image:Lynching_of_two_African_American_men_in_Marion_Indiana_on_7_August_1930_detail,_"Marion,_Ind,_Aug._7,_1930"_(NBY_3117)_(cropped).jpg|thumb|[[Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith]], [[lynching|lynched]] in Marion on August 7, 1930]]
Two African-American men were [[lynching|lynched]] in Marion on August 7, 1930. A large, mostly white mob estimated at 5,000 gathered at the county [[jail]] where three young black men were held on charges of killing a white man and raping his girlfriend. Before they could be tried, the three, [[Thomas Shipp]], [[Lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith|Abram Smith]], and [[James Cameron (activist)|James Cameron]], were dragged from the jail and severely beaten. Shipp and Smith were hanged to death. Cameron was saved when an unidentified woman said he had nothing to do with the crimes.

The woman retracted her accusation of rape{{Citation needed|date=December 2024}}. In 1931 Cameron was convicted as an accessory to murder and served four years before being paroled. He became educated and worked as a civil rights activist, later serving as the Indiana State Director of Civil Liberties from 1942 to 1950. He also founded three local chapters of the [[NAACP]], and served as the first president of the Madison County, Indiana chapter. In 1988 he founded [[America’s Black Holocaust Museum]] in [[Milwaukee]] to preserve the history of African Americans who had faced the terror and violence of lynching. In 1993, James Cameron received an official apology and a full pardon from the state of Indiana.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.visionaryproject.org/cameronjames/|title=James Cameron: Visionary Videos: NVLP: African American History|work=visionaryproject.org|access-date=7 June 2015}}</ref> Cameron later said, "Since the state of Indiana forgave me, I forgive the state of Indiana." In 2005, the US Senate also officially apologized to Cameron and families of the victims of lynchings. The event in Marion was notable as the last confirmed lynching of African Americans in Indiana and the [[Northern United States]].<ref>[http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060612/bradley David Bradley, "Anatomy of a Murder", ''The Nation'', June 12, 2006, pp. 32-36.]</ref>