SHELBYVILLE, Ky. — Shelby County found a way to open up about its past while still remembering those who were a part of it. At the corner of 5th and Washington, visitors will find a hard truth about Shelby County’s past.

That truth is engraved into the three markers in downtown Shelbyville, adorned with the names of the six men who were lynched by white mobs between 1878-1911: Reuben Dennis, Sam Pulliam, Clarence Garnett, Jimbo Fields, Wade Patterson and Eugene Marshall.

“Six men were lodged in this jail and what you see now wasn't here at the time. They were lodged in this jail and they were taken from this jail and taken down this hill, called Jail Hill ,and hung on the railroad bridge. They were lynched,” said Robert Marshall, member of the Shelbyville Community Remembrance Project Coalition.

Janice Harris, president of the Shelbyville Area NAACP and chairperson for the Shelby County Community Remembrance Project has been working on the installation of these historical markers since 2019. Due to COVID, the project was pushed back and was finally revealed on April 10, 2021.

Members of the Shelbyville Community Remembrance Project Coalition worked with the Equal Justice Initiative out of Montgomery, Alabama to tell the stories of the six men who were lynched.

“It just takes me back to the stories that these men didn't get an opportunity to have a fair trial, that they were lynched, they didn't get the opportunity to have a funeral. We don't know but it brings back a lot of memories for me to think that were able to do this to bring some closure to what's occurred,” Harris said.

The markers are a way to bring attention to the forgotten.

“I've lived in Shelbyville all my life and I didnt know these stories and I thought I like history and then when I heard them I realized this is going to hurt. But we tell good and bad history, painful and pleasant and proud history because we can learn from all of it and our hope is that this won't be repeated because we can learn from it,” Dr. Paul Schmidt, member of the Shelbyville Community Remembrance Project Coalition said.

Harris said Shelbyville Area NAACP spear-headed the project and the Equal Justice Initiative purchased the markers for the town. That makes Shelbyville the first in the state of Kentucky to unmask their past of lynchings.

“We are the first community in Kentucky to do this, and it just seemed to me a great opportunity and a much needed opportunity to make a statement about where our society still needs to go and reckoning with the past,” David Charlton, member of the Shelbyville Community Remembrance Project Coalition said.

The Shelbyville Community Remembrance Project Coalition is planning an essay contest to get the local school students involved in the history of Shelby County.