Brandi Quinn and her son Braylin Quinn, great-granddaughter and great-great-grandson of Raymond Byrd, stand at the marker located at the site of Wythe County Jail during a service commemorating the centennial of Byrd's lynching. On Aug. 15, 1926, Byrd was beaten, shot and dragged from the jail to Rural Retreat where he was lynched. The ceremony continued on Saturday, Aug. 15, at the Wytheville Training Center.
Patricia Austin called the torrential downpour that fell on downtown Wytheville as approximately fifty of us gathered to commemorate the centennial anniversary of one of the darkest chapters in our local history “tears from God.” One hundred years earlier, on Aug. 15, 1926, a 31-year-old Black man named Raymond Arthur Byrd was attacked, beaten, shot and lynched by an angry mob of white men from Wythe County. Byrd had been accused of a sexually assaulting a white girl, after which a group of racists took matters into their own hands and committed the unspeakable act of violence. Today, a historical marker commemorating Mr. Byrd's life and legacy stands in front of the site of the old Wythe County Jail, where he was held before being taken by the mob.
The park and recreation area long envisioned for Marion’s Callan Drive area possesses the potential to improve the quality of life of not just…
Brandi Quinn and her son Braylin Quinn, great-granddaughter and great-great-grandson of Raymond Byrd, stand at the marker located at the site of Wythe County Jail during a service commemorating the centennial of Byrd's lynching. On Aug. 15, 1926, Byrd was beaten, shot and dragged from the jail to Rural Retreat where he was lynched. The ceremony continued on Saturday, Aug. 15, at the Wytheville Training Center.
