Historical highway marker for lynching victim Charles Craven dedicated in Leesburg

The first state historical highway marker in Leesburg and Loudoun County memorializing a lynching victim was dedicated Wednesday, July 16.

State and local elected officials joined with members of the NAACP Loudoun Branch and the Loudoun Freedom Center in a ceremony at the site of the former Potter’s Field public burying ground, the present-day northeast corner of the intersection of East Market Street and Catoctin Circle.

That is the site where Charles Craven, a 25-year-old Black man, was lynched July 31, 1902. Craven was being held at the county jail on unrelated charges of murder and robbery when a mob of at least 300 armed men broke into the jail. Craven, who declared his innocence, was taken a half-mile away to the Potter’s Field, hanged from a tree, and attackers then fired hundreds of rounds of ammunition into his body.

Although there were many eyewitnesses and several charges brought against members of the mob, no one was convicted for their role in the lynching.

The NAACP Loudoun Branch and the Loudoun Freedom Center approached the Town to erect a memorial to Craven. With the support of the property owner, Catoctin Corner, LLC, and with research assistance from Freedom High School teacher Joan Lewis-Osborne and students of her AP African American Studies class, an application was submitted to the Virginia Department of Historic Resources. Final approval from the state was given at the September 2024 meeting of DHR.  

“This marker is not just a symbol of remembrance but is also a powerful statement of our shared commitment to ensuring that such acts of hatred and violence are never repeated. By confronting our past, we can take the necessary steps to create a future of equity, fairness, and respect for all people,” Mayor Kelly Burk stated.

Pastor Michelle C. Thomas, president of the NAACP Loudoun Branch, thanked the Town Council and Town staff for the partnership in pursuing the historical highway marker.

“There can be no healing without truth,” Thomas stated. “I’m so grateful to the Town of Leesburg in the way that you allowed the African American community to heal. You let us tell the story guided by facts, which is not always the case.”

While it is the first state historical highway marker in Loudoun County memorializing a lynching victim, it is the second lynching memorial in the Town of Leesburg. An interpretive sign recounting the 1889 lynching of 14-year-old Orion Anderson was dedicated in 2019 near Harrison Street SE and the W&OD Trail. The Town, along with the NAACP Loudoun Branch and the Loudoun Freedom Center, is now pursuing a state historical highway marker for Anderson.