Participants in a Juneteenth pilgrimage by the Diocese of West Missouri listen to speakers at the site where three Black men were lynched in 1906 in Springfield, Missouri. Photo: Gary Allman

[Diocese of West Missouri] Over 100 people gathered at Park Central Square in Springfield, Missouri, at noon on Juneteenth — Monday, June 19 — to learn, reflect and lament the tragic events of Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday in April 1906, when three African American men, Fred Coker, Horace Duncan and William Allen, were lynched in the square.

A group of 40 people traveled together on a bus from Kansas City to take part, starting out from St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church at 9 a.m.

The Rt. Rev. Diane Bruce, provisional bishop of the diocese, opened the event by recounting her experience of visiting The Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration in Montgomery, Alabama, in the spring of 2022 and again in the spring of 2023.

Read the rest of the article, which includes many photos, here.