For Delbert Jackson, the stretch of Martin Luther King Drive in his hometown represents both pride and painful history. According to Capital B news, the community leader, who organizes regular cleanups of the area, now finds himself battling to properly memorialize victims of racial violence, including his own relative.

A historic marker currently stands near Hicks Mortuary, honoring two Black men lynched by white mobs in the 1920s: 16-year-old Lige Daniels and Eolis "Buddy" Evans. But Jackson argues the placement is wrong—it should be 2 miles away in Center’s town square, where the original hanging tree once stood. He’s also pushing for a second marker to honor his cousin, Leonard McCowin, a 21-year-old WWII veteran allegedly killed by a city marshal in 1947.

McCowin’s sister, 90-year-old Reather Washington, still remembers the day her brother’s body was brought home. Witnesses said marshal Bryan McCallum struck McCowin with a rifle butt after inspecting the unloaded weapon, killing him instantly.

“He just throwed the gun down and walked away,” she told Capital B. “[He] looked around at the people and just walked off, like, ‘Y’all see what I did. That was a sad day.”

According to the outlet, newly released federal records from the Civil Rights Cold Case Review Board have brought fresh attention to McCowin’s case, one of 24 recently disclosed unresolved civil rights-era killings.

Jackson first learned of his town’s violent history in 2003 after seeing lynching photos in the book Without Sanctuary—including an image of Daniels hanging near Center’s courthouse. When he returned to his hometown in 2013, he began petitioning for proper memorials.

After years of resistance from Shelby County officials—who approved Confederate monuments but initially blocked the EJI lynching marker—Jackson secured its 2018 placement at the mortuary. Now he faces similar pushback over McCowin’s proposed marker and the lynching memorial’s relocation.

County Judge Allison Harbison told Capital B the existing WWII monument honors McCowin’s service, while suggesting a small plaque could mark the hanging tree site—an idea Jackson’s family rejects as insufficient.

The town square remains dotted with Confederate memorials, including one erected months before the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Jackson and fellow activist Richard Lundi are now organizing Shelby County’s first NAACP chapter to continue challenging historical narratives.