By Tihut Tamrat, Contributing Writer
In Centennial Park, Saturday, September 7th at 10 am, the Coronado Historical Association partnered with the Coronado Community Remembrance Coalition to locally memorialize Coronado resident Alton Collier, a victim of racial violence who was killed while riding the Coronado – San Diego ferry in 1946. The soil collected from the bottom of the San Diego Bay as remembrance will be sent to Equal Justice Initiative’s Legacy Museum in Montgomery, Alabama as a permanent display of soil collected from racial terror sites.
According to reports from the San Diego and Los Angeles Black Press in 1946, Collier was seated quietly in the boat’s stern and was assaulted by two drunken sailors who yelled, “there’s a n___r now” and kicked him. The “very quiet and unassuming” Collier moved to the bow to escape, but the sailors followed. He was “struck to the ground with a reef hook” and then “four other sailors, all white, joined in the fight and threw him overboard.” Collier fell nearly 15 feet into San Diego Bay. The crew briefly tried to “rescue” him before continuing to San Diego, Collier was never to be seen again.
During the ceremony, Ruthie Grant-Williams, member of the Coronado Community Remembrance Coalition gave a biography of Alton Collier and stated that Collier’s wife, “Georgia, demanded an investigation. But Coronado and the San Diego Police refused to take up an official investigation on jurisdictional grounds, claiming the bay was a legal ‘no man’s land’.”
“Both the San Diego County coroner and subsequent coroners in quest, determined that Alton’s death was suicide by drowning. No one was charged in Alton’s death”, she continued.
Starla Lewis, Professor at San Diego Mesa College, followed with a powerful poem titled, “Save the Whales” to acknowledge that lynchings are not just a thing of the past and the importance of recognizing the history we are all a part of.
Dr. John E. Warren, Publisher of Voice & Viewpoint, stands on the shoulder of 198-year-old Black Press.
He noted, “While we have come a long way, in many respects we have not come as far as we think. As I was sitting here listening, my mind raced back to the ordeal that Nina Simone had when she did that song about ‘Strange Fruit’, how people didn’t want that song sung. But the Strange Fruit was Black people hanging from trees,” drawing a parallel between past and present lynchings.
The soil collection ceremony commenced and was facilitated by Jason Sevier, member of the Coronado Community Remembrance Coalition, as attendees stood in line to drop a bit of soil into Collier’s jar in respect and remembrance.
Larry Collier Hall, a descendant of Alton Collier, gave his thanks to everyone for attending and was glad to be a part of the ceremony.
On this bright and sunny day, the Soil Collection ceremony was well-attended, prayers were given, songs were sung, and Coronado’s dark past was remembered.
