ST. CLOUD, Minn. – The 1920 lynching of three young black men in Duluth will be retold in a KVSC 88.1 FM radio drama airing noon March 1, 2015.
"Trial by Mob: The Duluth Lynchings" is a first-time production of a Michael Fedo script, based on Fedo’s 2000 Minnesota Historical Society Press book "The Lynchings in Duluth."

Part 1 of the podcast can be heard HERE

Part 2 of the podcast can beheard HERE

Fedo, producer Jo McMullen-Boyer, director Carol Cooley, anti-racism educator Debra Leigh and others will preview the hour-long drama at a free public discussion and program launch 7 p.m. Feb. 25 in the Atwood Memorial Center theater at St. Cloud State University.

A Duluth native, Fedo is a retired journalist and former college professor. McMullen Boyer is the KVSC station manager. Cooley is costume shop director for the SCSU Department of Theatre and Film Studies. Leigh is a lead organizer for SCSU’s Community Anti-Racism Education Initiative. Among others in the discussion will be Barry Schreiber, SCSU criminal justice studies professor.

"Trial by Mob: The Duluth Lynchings" was recorded, mixed and mastered by Nick Hendrickson, a satellite truck engineer for Arctek HD. Among the cast of 14 actors and more than 10 vocal extras were SCSU students, former students and alumni, including senior J.T. Scott, Minneapolis; sophomore Korina Borash, Esko; John O’Toole Peterson, St. Cloud; and Andy Valenty, St. Cloud.

The production was made possible, in part, by a grant from Minnesota’s Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund. Licensed to St. Cloud State since 1967, KVSC is an independent community radio station that broadcasts non-stop to a potential Central Minnesota audience of two million people.

On the evening of June 15, 1920, a crowd of thousands attacked the police station in Duluth, pulling Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson and Isaac McGhie from their jail cells. The three young black men were beaten and hanged by their necks from a lamp post at Second Avenue East and First Street.

The men, who were working for a traveling circus, were accused of raping 19-year-old Irene Tusken on June 14. Little evidence would be found to corroborate these claims. A June 15 examination of Tusken by Dr. David Graham, a family physician, showed no physical signs of rape or assault. No one was ever convicted for murdering Clayton, Jackson and McGhie.