A survivor’s story
James Cameron
Survived the 1930 attack · 1914–2006
A life of family, advocacy, and remembrance.
James Cameron survived. This story is separate from the memorial’s count of people killed by lynching.
Before the attack
Born in La Crosse, Wisconsin, Cameron moved to Marion, Indiana, with his mother as a teenager. She supported him and his two sisters by taking in washing. [1]
Marion, August 7, 1930
At sixteen, Cameron survived a mob attack that killed Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith. Afterward, he was convicted as an accessory to murder and imprisoned. Indiana pardoned him in 1993. [2]
The life he built
Cameron and his wife, Virginia, raised five children. He organized for the NAACP and served as Indiana’s Director of Civil Liberties. In 1982, he mortgaged his home to publish his memoir, later titled A Time of Terror: A Survivor’s Story. [1]
He opened America’s Black Holocaust Museum in Milwaukee in 1988, creating a place to teach African American history and preserve memory. [2]
He died in 2006 at age 92, shortly after celebrating 68 years of marriage. His museum continues his work of remembrance and education. [1]
Remembering those killed
Two lives lost in the same attack:
Sources & further reading
Sources checked September 19, 2026.
- 1. America’s Black Holocaust Museum — James Cameron’s biography
Fran Kaplan’s account of his childhood, family, advocacy, memoir, and later life. The page also includes a film about Cameron.
- 2. Equal Justice Initiative — The Marion lynching
Historical context, his survival, pardon, and museum opening. The linked account contains descriptions of violence.
The sources differ on the length of his imprisonment and the number of NAACP chapters he founded; this story does not assign exact figures to those details.