Editing Lowndes County, Georgia (section)

==== Lynching of Mary Turner and killing of her unborn child ====
In 1918, a white planter was murdered in Brooks County. He was known to have mistreated his black workers. Sidney Johnson, one of his workers, was suspected in his death. Mobs of whites hunted in Brooks and Lowndes counties for Johnson, rounding up and killing at least 11 other black men and one black woman and her unborn baby in what historian Meyers called "a lynching rampage." One man was killed in Lowndes County and the others in Brooks. [[Mary Turner (lynching victim)|Mary Turner]], the married mother of two young children and eight months pregnant, was brutally murdered in Lowndes County, near Folsom Bridge on the Little River. The unborn child was then cut from her womb and its head crushed by a booted foot of one of the participants in the lynching. Her husband had been lynched the day before although neither had anything to do with the white planter's death.<ref name="meyers2006killing">{{cite journal| author=Meyers, Christopher C| title=" Killing Them by the Wholesale": A Lynching Rampage in South Georgia| journal=The Georgia Historical Quarterly| year=2006| volume=90| number=2| pages=214–235| publisher=JSTOR| url=https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_q6VhhkczIYU2hSTHJtbHFmWGc/view?usp=sharing |access-date=May 14, 2013}}</ref> None of the lynching participants were prosecuted.

On May 15, 2010, a historical marker memorializing "Mary Turner and the Lynching Rampage" was placed near the lynching site in Lowndes County and dedicated.<ref>{{Cite web |date=June 16, 2014 |title=Mary Turner and the Lynching Rampage of 1918 - Georgia Historical Society |url=https://georgiahistory.com/ghmi_marker_updated/mary-turner-and-the-lynching-rampage-of-1918/ |access-date=November 12, 2023 |language=en-US}}</ref> The plaque includes a description of the associated murders of black people by white mobs in 1918, especially the lynchings of the Turners.<ref name=ramos2010>{{Cite news
|last = Ramos
|first = Kara
|title = Remembering a dark page of history
|work = Valdosta Daily Times
|location = Valdosta, GA
|access-date = May 23, 2013
|date = May 15, 2010
|url = http://valdostadailytimes.com/local/x712209351/Remembering-a-dark-page-of-history
}}</ref><ref name=marker>{{Cite web
| author = Georgia Historical Society
| title = Mary Turner and the Lynching Rampage of 1918
| work = Historical Marker Index
| access-date = May 23, 2013
| year = 2010
| url = http://www.georgiahistory.com/markers/4092
}}</ref>{{failed verification|date=March 2018}}
In July 2013, the plaque was found to have five bullet holes shot by an unknown vandal.<ref name=walb>{{Cite web
| author = WALB
| author-link = WALB
| title = Reward offered after historic marker shot with bullets
| access-date = February 10, 2015
| year = 2013
| url = http://www.walb.com/story/22854193/reward-offered-after-historic-marker-shot-with-bullets
}}</ref>
Since 2013, the plaque now has as many as 27 bullet holes and more recently, was struck multiple times by “some kind of off-road vehicle,” Mark Patrick George, coordinator for the Mary Turner Project, announced in October 2020. The historical marker has been since removed. Project officials said the historical marker will be stored until re-installment plans are made. It is unclear if authorities are investigating the latest vandalism incident.<ref name=KENNEY>{{Cite web| last = Kenney|first=Tanasia| title = Historical marker at site of pregnant woman's lynching is removed, GA officials say|website=[[Miami Herald]]| access-date = October 12, 2020| url =https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article246404680.html}}</ref>