While some local community members will be participating in the riot of 1930 historical marker installation ceremony at the Grayson County Courthouse Saturday, other members of the community will be remembering the May 9, 1930 in another way.

Marian McElroy will be debuting the play written by her late mother Njoki McElroy with a reading of the work at 2 p.m. Saturday at Austin College.

“The play is based on my mother’s memior, “1012 Natchez: A Memoir of Joy, Hardship and Love,” Marian McElroy said this week. “She published it about 2009. The name of the book is the address of her grandparents, my great grandparents who lived in Sherman. They lived in Sherman at the time of the May 9, 1930 event.”

Njoki McElroy died in 2023.

“She was born in Sherman in that house,” Marian McElroy said. “Dr. William Prince delivered my mother and my mother’s mother in that house.”

A few months before her death, Njoki McElroy completed the play based upon the memoir.

“I guess she had foresight because she insisted that I be a coauthor,” Marian McElroy said. “She just knew she was not long for this world so she was adamant about me being a coauthor, and I am sure that was so I could continue this play in her legacy.”

The play is not just a retelling of the events leading up to and following the Sherman riot of 1930.

“She wrote the play because she felt when people talked about the lynching in 1930 and the courthouse burning and the destruction of the Black business district, that there was little mention of the people who suffered mightily as a result of what happened,” Marian McElroy said.

“She felt she needed to put a human face on those individuals who included my great grandparents. Her main purpose was to show this thriving Black community that was in Sherman at the time. It was one of the most successful in the United States at the time. It was a closeknit conclave of doctors, dentists, pharmacists and other business owners.”

The McElroy family was friends with many of the people who lost businesses that day.

“The prominent civil rights attorney J. William Durham lived here,” Marian McElroy said. “The Andrew’s Building was like a mall. It had a large auditorium and there were several other businesses that were housed in that building. It really was very successful community that was destroyed. My mother felt it was time for history and that community to get its due.”

The timing of the play reading only coincides with the installation of the historical marker by chance.

“We did not know that the reading was going to be the same day as the installation of the historical marker,” Marian McElroy said. “I just think that was my mother arranging that. It was serendipity. It was so marvelous to hear it was going to be on the same day.

“It was just divine order. That is why we called this “Day of Healing.” That is just what it feels like.”

Some of the roles in the work are Marian McElroy’s great grandparents Jeff and Julia Washington, Durham and a special character.

“The young girl is a compost of my mother and someone who grew up in Sherman who grew up to be 100,” Marian McElroy said. “She was a senior at the time of the riot. She was preparing for her graduation. My mother interviewed a number of people who were connected to Sherman and the event. She relayed the story of this woman who had a yellow dress. It was for her prom. She was looking forward to wearing this dress and graduating. She ends up going on to Xavier University which is what my mother actually did. The character was a senior at Fredrick Douglass High School.”

While this weekend’s event is a reading comes from the support of Brad and REna Douglass, Marian McElroy has plans to get the play produced.

“Before my mother passed, we had talked to Austin College and were planning to have it produced for the recent anniversary of Austin College,” she said. “Unfortunately, things did not come together. My mother got sick and I could not spend the time on it as I wanted to.

“This is really to honor my mother’s wish to do it in her birthplace. I certainly am looking forward to it. We are also in talks with someone in Dallas to produce the play.”

As for the main take aways from the play, Marian McElroy said remembering history and the greatness of people are pivotal in the work.

“I think what I would like to see people take away from this is the knowledge that there were Black people in the early part of the 20th Century who were thriving,” she said. “They were professionals. They were business people. They were independent. This was during the Jim Crow era. They were resilient despite what happened. That is important today when there is so much emphasis on DEI. That is really insulting because we know that there were many Black people who were successful and qualified. They overcame many challenges and obstacles.”