Date: 
Mar 9 1892

In March of 1892, in a mixed race neighborhood called the Curve, near  Mississippi Blvd and Walker Avenue a white grocer named William Barrett found his business shrinking because of the success of grocery nearby run by three black men, Will Stewart, Tommie Moss, and Calvin McDowell.  Rumors and trumped up charges sent a large group of armed white men into the store. Gunshots were traded and several white men were injured. The three black grocers, all family men, were arrested and jailed. Three days later the downtown jail was stormed and Stewart, Moss and McDowell were dragged out and taken to the nearby Chesapeake and Ohio rail yards. The three men fought back, but eventually McDowell was shot point blank by a shotgun. Will Stewart resisted until he was shot in the neck. Tommie Moss was asked if he had any final words. He said “Tell my people to go west. There  is no justice for them here.” He was shot and left with the others under a pile of brush.

This lynching is also known as the Lynchings at the Curve.

Regarding her good friend Thomas Moss, Ida B. Wells wrote:  

"A finer, cleaner man than he never walked the streets of Memphis.  He was well liked, a favorite with everybody; yet he was murdered with no more consideration that if he had been a dog...The colored people feel that every white man in Memphis who consented in his death is as guilty as those who fired the guns which took his life."

"...with the aid of the city and county authorities and the daily papers, that white grocer had indeed put an end to his rival Negro grocer as well as to his business."

–Ida B. Wells, in Crusade for Justice, 1892

The Red Record: People's Grocery PART 2

On March 9, 1892, Thomas Moss, Calvin McDowell, and Will Stewart were lynched in Memphis, TN. The Black men had formed a co-op called People’s Grocery that had drawn customers away from a nearby white competitor. Their murders led famed journalist and women’s suffragist Ida B. Wells to investigate the true racist motivations of lynchings and she was exiled soon after because of her writings.

The Red Record: People's Grocery PART 1

On March 9, 1892, Thomas Moss, Calvin McDowell, and Will Stewart were lynched in Memphis, TN. The Black men had formed a co-op called People’s Grocery that had drawn customers away from a nearby white competitor. Their murders led famed journalist and women’s suffragist Ida B. Wells to investigate the true racist motivations of lynchings and she was exiled soon after because of her writings. 

Ida B Wells Historical Marker mentioning the People's Grocery Lynching

The Ida B Wells Historical Marker that is on Beale Street (kitty corner from Jerry Lee Lewis) mentions the People's Grocery Lynching and the importance that played in her life.

Ida B. Wells crusaded against lynchings in Memphis and the South. In 1892 while editor of the Memphis Free Speech, located in this vicinity, she wrote of the lynching of three Black businessmen. As a result, her newspaper office was destroyed and her life threatened.

Ida B Wells Historical Marker mentioning the People's Grocery Lynching
Ida B Wells Historical Marker mentioning the People's Grocery Lynching

People's Grocery Historical Marker

Historical marker at Southeast Corner of Mississippi Blvd. and Walker, erected by Tennessee Historical Commission 4E 106. As far as we know, this is the only marker commemorating a lynching in Shelby County.

People's Grocery Historical Marker
People's Grocery Historical Marker
People's Grocery Historical Marker
Dawnelle Hurd (organizer) and observers at the unveiling of the historical marker in 1991
People's Grocery Historical Marker
News clipping from 1991 of Eddie L Smith (Mayor of Holly Spring) and Dawnelle Hurd (organizer).

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