History - CNN "Jonestown"

The Peoples Temple survivors took a big step last Tuesday toward healing from the unfathomable mass suicide in Guyana 30 years ago.

About 50 survivors and their families gathered at the Evergreen Cemetery in East Oakland to remember the horrors of Nov. 18, 1978, and dedicate a memorial in honor of those who died.

"This memorial says evil did not win," said Jynona Norwood, a Los Angeles minister who lost 27 family members in the Jonestown tragedy and who spoke at last Tuesday's service. "Even though they're dead, this monument means their cries will be heard from beyond the grave. This will be their final resting place. Justice will be served."

Since the early 1980s, Norwood has been raising money and planning the Jonestown monument. When it is completed, it will consist of seven 7-foot-tall granite panels inscribed with the names of more than 900 people who died in the mass suicide in Guyana. The name of Peoples Temple leader Jim Jones will be left off the memorial.

Two of the simple, monolithic panels were unveiled last Tuesday. Organizers hope all seven panels will be finished by next year's Jonestown anniversary, although they still need to raise funds to finish paying for the $100,000 project.

Six of the panels will be identical black rectangles, and the seventh will be an 8-foot-tall red panel, reserved for the names of the 305 children who died at Jonestown.

When they're finished, the panels will be erected on a shady hillside overlooking the city, with the bay and San Francisco beyond. The monument will be near a mass grave at Evergreen where more than 400 Jonestown victims are buried.

On Tuesday, mourners tossed red carnations on the shiny black granite and moved their fingers over the names. Some wept, while others prayed or hugged their families.

At the service, survivors described the charm and hypnotic lure of Jones, and how he promised his followers a utopia free of racism and sexism. But over time, the encampment 250 miles from Georgetown in the Guyana jungle became a concentration camp, they said, with forced labor, beatings and death threats for those who tried to leave.

Survivors have a responsibility to share their stories to prevent a similar horror in the future, he said.

"We now have the opportunity to think for ourselves, and we can be aware of toxic, abusive relationships," he said. "We have to train our children to think for themselves."

Charles Krause, a reporter for the Washington Post who was on a nearby airstrip when Peoples Temple guards opened fire, killing five, also spoke about the importance of remembrance.

"We still need to learn the lessons of Jonestown," said Krause, who was shot at the airstrip attack. "We can all be deceived and betrayed, on a personal level, as a country, as a community. We need to be careful and mindful of that." source