Personal Reflections on the remembrance for Lee Snell

By Evan Keller, May 23, 2020

Memorial Day weekend is a fitting setting to remember Lee Snell, a World War I Army veteran, who was a 1939 victim of racial terror lynching in Daytona Beach, Florida. Private First Class Snell is the first of the Volusia Five to be respectfully memorialized in the Volusia Remembers initiative through a Saturday service (under the direction of steering committee member Daisy Grimes) at his grave in the historic Mt. Ararat African-American Cemetery off Nova Road.

Intentionally a small gathering (with social distancing practiced) due to the current pandemic, the participants stood in a wide circle and took turns sharing with each other (and the broader Volusia Remembers Coalition via Facebook Live) what is known about this honorable man who was denied all honor when his blood was shed in extralegal fashion.

The historical setting was the Jim Crow era in which the practice of lynching claimed over 5,000 Black victims (as cited during the service by Bethune-Cookman University professor Rick Buckelew) and terrorized the remaining Black population into submission to laws and norms meant to subjugate them as subhuman.

Mary Allen (director of DeLand’s African-American Museum of Arts) eulogized a man who should have remained alive into her lifetime, but whose life was snuffed out on April 29, 1939 in a highway ambush of a deputy’s car in which he was a passenger.

Ms. Allen pointed out that in 43 short years, Mr. Snell had accomplished much, especially in the context of the extremely limited opportunities afforded a Black man in the Jim Crow South. In addition to serving his country, he was a father and grandfather, was a member in good standing of his local African-American veterans post, owned his own taxi cab, and was held in high esteem by the local Black community – as evidenced by the large crowd of supporters attending his hearing regarding the accidental death of a young white boy on a bicycle struck by his taxi cab.

As Rina Arroyo (of Stetson University) shared next to Mr. Snell’s gravestone, “a new era of truth-telling” is what our partners at the Equal Justice Initiative hope will catalyze such a “beloved community” here in Volusia County and around the country.  Equal Justice Initiative founder Bryan Stevenson says: “I am not interested in punishing America with this history. I want to liberate us. I think we are a nation that has never truly sought truth and reconciliation. We are not going to be free, really free, until we pursue that.”

Daytona Beach Mayor Derrick Henry spoke to honor Mr. Snell, affirm the work of the Coalition, and offer his unreserved support of Volusia Remembers in hopes that a measure of racial unity will be achieved. He noted that some have considered Daytona Beach to be “above the curve” due to the extraordinary achievements of Mary McLeod Bethune.

The attendees, speakers, and Volusia Remembers steering committee and broader coalition are already embodying the healing and teamwork across the color line that will hopefully become as common as the Embry-Riddle Cessna planes that made it hard to hear the presenters at the memorial service. Those deadened voices remind us that the sorrow-laden voices of Lee Snell’s people have been suppressed for 400 years. Remembering and honoring the Volusia Five is a start to righting that wrong and bringing to light our hard history, with the goals to “honor, educate, and reconcile.”

The graveside memorial honored Mr. Snell with a glorious and patriotic floral wreath befitting Memorial Day, and United States flags around a freshly cleaned tombstone. With various events including collection of soil near lynching sites and installation of historical markers and monuments, the Volusia Remembers Coalition hopes to shed light on present day racial tensions and bring a hopeful dialog towards building a positive future – together.

The sun showered its cheery light throughout Saturday morning, and while airplane engines drowned out some of the words of remembrance, songbirds seemed to accentuate them, hinting at the joyful melody of the “beloved community” that Volusia Remembers hopes to nurture.

The service ended with Judge Grimes and all offering a libation to honor Lee Snell and all the ancestors who endured through slavery, Jim Crow, and segregation to this moment of new hope.

To conclude the service Rev.Reginald Williams led in prayer and the attendees sang the hymn, “God Bless America.”