Local

Event: Join The State to learn how ‘The Wrong Walk Home’ podcast came together

The State staff

Updated February 29, 2024 2:16 PM

A young black man took a wrong turn on his way home from church in 1890, which led to a horrific incident in South Carolina history. The States’ new podcast “The Wrong Walk Home: The Lynching of Willie Leaphart” tells the harrowing story of his wrongful imprisonment, conviction and murder. Today, all available evidence suggests Willie was innocent. There now is an ongoing effort to clear Willie’s name more than 130 years later.

Join Bristow Marchant, a reporter for The State, and Michael Burgess, a teacher in the Center for Law and Global Policy Development at River Bluff High School and the current South Carolina History Teacher of the Year. Burgess initially unearthed this lost piece of history. Marchant has been writing about and researching Leaphart’s story for three years to develop this podcast.

They will be joined by J.R. Fennell, director of the Lexington County Museum, and educator and former Lexington Town Council member Constance Flemming — both also featured on the podcast — to discuss the history behind “The Wrong Walk Home” and what it means for Lexington and South Carolina today.

You’ll learn how the pieces of the story came together, and what you can do to help clear Willie Leaphart’s name.

Attendees are asked to use Entrance A from Corley Mill Road, park in the front lot of the school and enter through the main entrance.