Almost 70 years ago, James Cameron lived a day in his life that would go down in infamy.
If it weren't for an angelic voice telling an angry white mob to let him go, James Cameron says he would not be alive today. Unfortunately, his friends were lynched on trees minutes prior to a noose being tossed around his neck in Marion, Indiana
in 1930.
Eighty-six year young Cameron says that he has forgiven but that he has not forgotten. It is because of this, and the plethora of injustices that have occurred through out the country to African Americans since it's beginning, that Cameron has been inspired to create America's Black Holocaust Museum, located in Milwaukee, WI.
On the night of August 7, Cameron was with two of his buddies when his friends decided to rob a couple at lover's lane. Cameron ran from the scene when he recognized the man they were planning to rob as a regular patron of his shoe shine stand.
"I sure in hell wasn't going to stay. I ran about 6 miles ringing wet with sweat. When I made it to the house. Mama asked, 'You in some kind of trouble?' I told her, 'No, mama, I just been playing football'. She told me to go in and go to bed, I staggered up the steps, in a trance. I'm pacing up and down the floor thinking about what happened out in lovers lane. I was full of wonder."
"Finally, there was a knock on the door. It was the police.
"Seemed like Hurricane Floyd came through the house.
"She asked them was I in some kind of trouble but the police wouldn't tell her. She started to cry, begging for them to tell her. Then, she told them that I was upstairs in bed.
"I got into bed and put the covers over my head and I can see their flashlights shining through they said 'Get up and put your clothes on.' So I put them on 'Did you tell your mother what you and those boys did tonight.' 'I didn't.' She (his mother) was telling the police to take her instead of me. I have always hated that I put my mother through that."
The next morning local police in Marion, Indiana interrogated Cameron and his two friends in connection with the murder of the white man and a rape of the white
Eighty-six year young Cameron says that he has forgiven but that he has not forgotten. It is because of this, and the plethora of injustices that have occurred through out the country to African Americans since it's beginning, that Cameron has been inspired to create America's Black Holocaust Museum, located in Milwaukee, WI.
On the night of August 7, Cameron was with two of his buddies when his friends decided to rob a couple at lover's lane. Cameron ran from the scene when he recognized the man they were planning to rob as a regular patron of his shoe shine stand.
"I sure in hell wasn't going to stay. I ran about 6 miles ringing wet with sweat. When I made it to the house. Mama asked, 'You in some kind of trouble?' I told her, 'No, mama, I just been playing football'. She told me to go in and go to bed, I staggered up the steps, in a trance. I'm pacing up and down the floor thinking about what happened out in lovers lane. I was full of wonder."
"Finally, there was a knock on the door. It was the police.
"Seemed like Hurricane Floyd came through the house.
"She asked them was I in some kind of trouble but the police wouldn't tell her. She started to cry, begging for them to tell her. Then, she told them that I was upstairs in bed.
"I got into bed and put the covers over my head and I can see their flashlights shining through they said 'Get up and put your clothes on.' So I put them on 'Did you tell your mother what you and those boys did tonight.' 'I didn't.' She (his mother) was telling the police to take her instead of me. I have always hated that I put my mother through that."
The next morning local police in Marion, Indiana interrogated Cameron and his two friends in connection with the murder of the white man and a rape of the white
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