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BETH FRIEND: On the evening of June 12, 1920, in the city of Duluth, a 19-year-old white woman was taking a stroll with her boyfriend. There is no confirmed account of the couple's experiences that night. But one version of the story suggests that the two of them walked behind visiting circus tents, passing by several Black circus workers who sassed them a bit. In a theatrical retelling of the story, John Davidson's new musical The Last Minstrel Show, the young woman is named Barbara, her beau, Richard. This is how he describes what happened.

SPEAKER 1: We were just, we were just looking for a place to get away from the crowd, you know. When these nigger boys started to come up to us. One of them pulled out a gun and he took my watch. And then they pushed me down and they held me down while each one of them--

SPEAKER 2: Each one of them did what?

BETH FRIEND: Each one of them raped Barbara, was Richard's answer. In fact, the circus train was stopped by the Duluth Police, and 120 Black workers were lined up along the tracks. The young woman pointed to six men who allegedly matched the height and size of her attackers. They were taken to the Duluth jail. The story spread and grew in scope and ugliness.

SPEAKER 3: Someone had better call the police. There's a gang of niggers roaming the South side of town raping women as they leave the circus.

SPEAKER 4: They better not show up around here. We've all got guns and by God, we'll use them.

SPEAKER 5: Police? Yeah, you better get over here quick.

BETH FRIEND: Cool heads did not prevail. The next day, a mob stormed the jail, and after a mock trial dragged three of the Black men to a corner lightpole and hung them. Over 5,000 people reportedly stood in the street and watched as 20-year-old Isaac McGhie, 19-year-old Elmer Jackson, and 19-year-old Elias Clayton were lynched.

More than 70 years later, their deaths come as shocking news to many Minnesotans who attend performances of The Last Minstrel Show at the Penumbra Theater Company, Minnesota's only Black theater company. Through a cavalcade of song and dance, a 16-member predominantly Black cast recounts the lynching, and comments sharply on the racism that caused it. Actors frequently break character, confronting each other and the audience. But, says the show's creator John Davidson, it all serves the theatrical task at hand.

JOHN DAVIDSON: Our prime directive is to entertain. This is a minstrel show, so we use popular music, which is familiar and entertaining to get their perceptions keyed up to hear the things that we want to say to them. So to answer your first question, the music that we choose is familiar sounding music because I want people to be at ease with the music, and not at ease with the lyrics.

PERFORMERS: (SINGING) On the shores of Gitchee Gumee

Darkies lives are very gloomy

'Cause you're nothing but a nigger in Duluth

You're nothing but a nigger in Duluth

You're nothing but a nigger in Duluth

N-I-G-G-E-R

BETH FRIEND: With this musical number setting the stage, audiences know early on that this is entertainment with a bite. Lou Bellamy is the producer of The Last Minstrel Show, and the artistic director of Penumbra Theater.

LOU BELLAMY: You're almost caught clapping at something that you find repulsive. And the juxtaposition of that being drawn in by the music, being drawn in by the story, enjoying laughing and so forth. And then the pain coming out of that, makes for a roller coaster of an evening for an audience.

BETH FRIEND: Davidson uses a variety of musical motifs to charm audience members and keep them caught in this dynamic tension. Strains of Elvis, doo-wop, and rap, fill the stage, as well as Waltz and Tango rhythms. Everything is rolling right along melodically, and the lynching is just about to take place, when suddenly all action stops.

SPEAKER 7: Now, if you don't like unpleasant things or have a weak stomach, this is your opportunity to leave the theater. You see we don't lynch anyone till Act Two. Give folks a chance to relax for a while. Well besides, theater should be fun, right? This shit is much too serious to be taken without some refreshments. And besides, I have it on good authority that the best way to encourage an audience to return for Act Two is to promise them that they will see us lynch a couple of niggers. So let's go out to the lobby. Maestro.

BETH FRIEND: Act One then ends in traditional blockbuster fashion, with a good old George M. Cohan style song and dance number. But there is more here than smiling people jumping around to lively percussion. The text is substantive and disturbing. We're going to have a party, the actors sing, and hang our dirty laundry on the line. But we know all too well it's not laundry they're talking about.

PERFORMERS: (SINGING) We're going to have a party

We're going to have a treat

We're going to have some dirty laundry from the lamp post down the street

We're going to do some dancing, show the gentlemen [INAUDIBLE]

And our American traditions will be waving in the breeze

In the breeze, while the children laugh and sing

In the breeze for it doesn't mean a thing

In the breeze, underneath the swaying trees

Then you'll be waving in the breeze

BETH FRIEND: But playwright John Davidson says his very favorite intrusion into someone else's music is the parity of Gilbert and Sullivan, which he composed for the play's courtroom scene. In that scene, another Black circus worker is brought to trial on charges of having raped Barbara.

JOHN DAVIDSON: I wanted a chance to be able to open up this last bastion of male white dominated music to a multicultural presentation of a courtroom scene where everybody's nuts except the defendant.

PERFORMERS: (SINGING) Be calm, have no fear

The judge is coming near

Be brave, be true, and the law will favor you

Favor you, la, la

You la, la

The law will see you through, la, la

BETH FRIEND: In the actual aftermath of the lynching, three additional Black men were brought to trial, and accused of raping the young white woman. One of the three was convicted and paroled after five years. Ultimately, three whites who were members of the lynch mob, were also convicted and paroled after serving less than two years.

The bodies of the three Black men lynched lay in unmarked graves in the cemetery of Duluth's Norwegian Lutheran Church, until one year ago, when a memorial ceremony was held and three granite plaques were placed at the sites. Each bore a name, date of birth, and death, and the phrase, deterred but not defeated. It's a closure of sorts. Still, says Last Minstrel Show producer Lou Bellamy, those days are not over.

LOU BELLAMY: When we hang those three men in this show, it has an effect at least upon the Black people in the audience, that is astounding. They're quiet, they know that's real, and they know that could happen to them. Perhaps they're not hung, but they're certainly beaten, and so forth. So it's a ritualistic warning, and boy it does the job.

BETH FRIEND: This past June, the community of Topeka, Kansas, home to the father of one of the lynch victims, planned to dedicate a bridge to his son's memory. The night before the ceremony was to take place, graffiti was sprayed across the site. It read, dead nigger bridge.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

PERFORMER: (SINGING) They'll come a day when the folks will say

There'll be no more sticks and stones

I got a feeling in my bones

You will be racially in the minority and still keep up with Dow Jones

BETH FRIEND: I'm Beth Friend, Minnesota Public Radio.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

PERFORMER: (SINGING) There will come a time when every Clevon, Juan, and Harry

Will be Black or white and it'll be all right

And it won't even be a little bit scary

We'll all be together in all kinds of weather, [INAUDIBLE]

I got a feeling, an extra special feeling