Volusia Remembers Coalition (VRC), a community program of The Civitas Project (501c3), will hold a public ceremony on Saturday, Sept. 27, at 10:30 a.m. to unveil an Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) historical marker in the 200 block of West Rich Avenue in DeLand.

This event honors the memory of Lee Bailey, a Black man who was lynched by a White mob in 1891 after being taken from the custody of the Volusia County sheriff and a deputy. The marker acknowledges this painful chapter of local history in order to foster community dialogue around racial justice.

Mr. Bailey, an agricultural worker, was arrested by the county sheriff after being accused by a local woman of assault. Later that same evening, around midnight, a mob estimated at about 100 individuals forcibly removed him from the county jail, dragged him along Rich Avenue, and hanged him from an oak tree, subsequently riddling his body with bullets. No one was ever held accountable for this brutal act.

Installation of the marker was unanimously approved by DeLand’s City Commission at their June 2, 2025, meeting. City officials and VRC leaders will speak at the brief unveiling ceremony, and Mia Taylor, from EJI’s Community Remembrance Team will be a special guest.

VRC will soon announce additional conversations to allow more people to learn about the EJI historical marker project and to participate in “hard but healing” conversations. The emphasis of these conversations is never to shame the public for deeds they did not personally commit. Rather, by honoring the victims who were denied due process of law, we acknowledge and repudiate such extralegal racial terror. We find the courage to face hard truths, connect our history to our present, and reimagine a path towards a more just, positive and united future.

For more information, contact VRC Co-Chairs Sharon Stafford at 407-314-1033 or Grady Ballenger at 386-747-5022. You may also contact VRC Communications Chair Evan Keller at 386-801-5300. See additional details on VRC’s website and EJI’s website.

Additional Background: Volusia Remembers Coalition is a program of a local nonprofit, The Civitas Project. A diverse group of county leaders, VRC has focused on understanding the county’s history in order, more honestly, to build a more united and just future.

With assistance from the Equal Justice Institute in Montgomery, Alabama, VRC has researched Mr. Bailey’s story, finding many accounts in local newspapers, such as the Florida Agriculturist, Supplement, as well in national and international newspapers. Florida newspapers written primarily for Whites praised the lynching, justifying mob violence, even though Mr. Bailey never had a chance to present any defense in court before his horrific murder.

In September 2021, VRC organized a Soil Collection Ceremony for Mr. Bailey, an agricultural worker in DeLand. Members took a soil sample from the approximate site of the lynching. The soil was honored in a traditional libation ceremony and placed in two simple glass jars, with Mr. Bailey’s name and the date of his death in DeLand. One jar is now on display at the African American Museum of the Arts in DeLand and the other is in the collection at EJI’s National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama.

Lee Bailey is the earliest of four documented victims of racial terror lynching in Volusia County between 1865 and 1950. At least 356 Black men and women were lynched in Florida during this period and more than 6,500 nationally. This national project aims to display a Soil Remembrance Jar for each documented victim in Montgomery as well as a marker and county monument.

Sharon Stafford and Grady Ballenger serve as Co-Chairs of VRC. Other members of the Steering Committee are Reggie Williams, Daisy Grimes, Rina Arroyo, Judy Thompson, Richard Buckelew, Evan Keller, Felicia Benzo and Sam Houston. Coalition members Hubert Grimes and Sidney Johnston also played significant roles in VRC’s remembrance of Lee Bailey.

The ceremony will take place outdoors, with limited seating, so it will be brief. Ample free parking will be available nearby in city and county lots around the Volusia County administration building.