A marker remembering a lynching victim in St. Johns County has gone missing, officials said Friday afternoon.

The Equal Justice Initiative, which has documented lynchings in the South, had arranged for the marker to be placed near the St. Johns River off State Road 13 in northwest St. Johns County. That's where a white mob lynched African-American farmer Isaac Barrett in 1897, according to a press release from the group. A ceremony was, and still is, planned for Saturday to dedicate the marker.

St. Johns County crews placed the marker a couple of days ago in county right of way, County Administrator Michael Wanchick said. Wanchick learned today that the marker was missing after crews checked on the site to make sure it was ready for the event.

"Just collectively, we feel rather embarrassed this happened in our community," Wanchick said.

Sheriff's Office spokesman Chuck Mulligan said Friday evening that a dive team planned to search for the marker.

Floyd and Regina Phillips run the Lincolnville Museum and Cultural Center, a black history museum that is part of the project. The Saturday event will still go on as planned, they said.

"The show will go on. We're not going to allow this negative thing to impact (the event)," Floyd Phillips said.

The event will still begin at 10 a.m. Saturday at 10000 Shands Pier Road in St. Johns. Wanchick said the county was making a temporary marker for the event.

Despite their decision to press on, Floyd and Regina Phillips expressed their dismay at the apparent vandalism.

"We thought we were moving toward some kind of reconciliation. ... Now (the marker) has been destroyed," Regina Phillips said.

Floyd Phillips said, "It just goes to show how things are in this country right now. They were bad back in the 1800s when he was lynched. ... It seems that to some extent things aren't a whole lot better today in St. Johns County for African-Americans."

According to the Equal Justice Initiative, officers detained Barrett after he was accused of assaulting his white employer's family during an argument over money they owed to Barrett.

"While officers were transporting Mr. Barrett to the local magistrate, a mob of [12] armed, masked white men abducted him in the Orangedale area (in St. Johns County) and hanged him from an oak tree along the riverbank in a nearby wooded area," according to the release.

Press reports indicated that Barrett had confessed. But "black people who questioned or challenged their employers about unfair treatment were often subject to violent responses. Moreover, accusations against black people were rarely subject to scrutiny; therefore, in many cases the mere suggestion of black-on-white misconduct provoked mob violence and lynchings before the judicial system could or would act."

The Equal Justice Initiative has documented thousands of lynchings in the South from 1877 to 1950, according to the release.

"Of the group, at least 313 of these women, men, and children were lynched in the state of Florida and [one] was lynched in St. Johns County, Isaac Barrett."