Morehouse College awarded Dennis Hubert, a sophomore in divinity school, a posthumous degree almost a century after the 18-year-old Black college student was lynched in a Georgia playground. Imam Plemon El-Amin, his nephew, accepted the honorary posthumous Bachelor of Arts in religion degree on May 18.
The university’s president, David Thomas, referred to Hubert as a “son of Morehouse, a martyr of justice, and what history now sees as the Trayvon Martin of the 1930s in Atlanta” during the graduation ceremony, according to CNN.
Though he never had the opportunity to meet his late uncle, El-Amin, now 75, told CNN that “ninety-five years later, people are conscious of his [uncle’s] life, which means he’s still alive. Though not here with us physically or in body, but his life, his will, and he is providing inspiration for those of us left behind.”
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Hubert had gone to his mother’s and grandmother’s homes on June 15, 1930, before heading to the playground of Crogman School, a segregated school for Black students.
Within 15 minutes after his arrival, seven white men approached the college student and accused him of insulting a white woman, according to the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI). They continued attacking him despite Hubert’s claim that he knew nothing about their charges.
“What do you want of me? I have done nothing,” a witness recalled the young man saying.
In front of at least two dozen witnesses, one of the white men put a gun to Hubert’s head and shot him at close range without any investigation, police involvement, or trial, according to the nonprofit organization.
During that time, the deadly assault was one of many racially motivated murders that occurred in the U.S., particularly in the south. According to the EJI, lynchings in the South totaled over 4,000 between 1877 and 1950.
Because Hubert’s family was so well-known, his killing sent shockwaves through the county. The seven men were arrested, which was unheard of at the time.
But two days after the men were refused bail, the house of Hubert’s father, a popular pastor, was intentionally set on fire. A Baptist church that was trying to raise funds for the rebuilding and for the men’s prosecution was tear-gassed.
“A few days later Dennis’s cousin, Rev. Charles R. Hubert, narrowly escaped an attempted murder,” the EJI reported, adding that the chapel for Morehouse’s sister campus, Spelman campus, “was attacked by night riders who threw stones and shattered the Chapel’s lamps.”
The seven men involved were found guilty of lesser crimes and acquitted despite the fact that witnesses saw Hubert being murdered.
“One defendant received 12-15 years imprisonment for voluntary manslaughter, while the defendant who confessed to firing the fatal shot received a sentence of just two years,” according to the nonprofit.
Today, nearly a century after the Hubert family endured trauma and lost a promising son, they are relieved that he has now been recognized. El-Amin expressed how the occasion was significant to his family and reflected a common Islamic sentiment: a person’s good actions, knowledge, and loved ones who pray for them are all that remain after death.
“Many prayers were said in his name,” El-Amin told CNN about the ceremony. “Many people remembered him and were informed about his life and his legacy, and so the knowledge was there, as well as the charity of him sacrificing his life so that we would be more conscious of the value of young life and the value of human life, but also the value of justice.”
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