Why It's Time for Me to Listen by Steve Strain

The people who suffered these things—Mary and Hayes Turner, Ell Persons, Jesse Lee Bond, and far, far too many others—were Americans. They were born here. They were citizens. They, and their survivors, were entitled to the same due process under law that you or I would expect. And they did not receive it. The acts they suffered were criminal, and justice has yet to be done. In many cases, the criminal nature of the acts hasn’t even been formally acknowledged.

4/12/21, Barbara Williams: "The Death and Remembrance of Tuskegee Pilot 2nd Lieutenant Walter Payton Manning"

3/8/21, Michelle Duster and Laura Faith Kebede: "Virtual Book Tour with Michelle Duster"

LSP’S LETTER TO THE GOVERNOR OF TENNESSEE IN RESPONSE TO THE IMPENDING EXECUTION OF PERVIS PAYNE

March 19, 2021

The Honorable Governor of Tennessee
1st Floor, State Capitol
Nashville, TN 37243

Re: Scheduled Execution of Pervis Payne

Dear Governor Lee,

1/25/21, Lamont Turner: "Will Franklin's 'Fuller Story' Heal its Open Civil War Wound?"

Click here to visit Lamont Turner's website.

A Life of Truth by Tom Momberg

A Life of Truth

One of the most beautifully disturbing questions we can ask is whether a given story we tell about our lives is actually true, and whether the opinions we go over every day have any foundation or are things we repeat to ourselves simply so that we will continue to play the game. It can be quite disorienting to find that a story we have relied on is not only not true - it actually never was true. Not now, not ever. ~ David Whyte

LSP in 2020 by Tom Momberg

December 23, 2020

From the President of the Board of the Lynching Sites Project:

In his 1962 bestseller The Fire Next Time, James Baldwin wrote that “whatever white people do not know about (Black people) reveals, precisely and inexorably, what they do not know about themselves.”

Over the past eighteen months, in several significant ways, I have continued to learn about the culture of white privilege and superiority in which I was raised and have lived all my life. My Black sisters and brothers keep teaching me about this.

Requiem for Justice: Lest We Forget Luther Billings by Rev. Dr. Kevin A. Brooks

On October 10, 1905, a human life was taken from chronicles of time. Robbed of divine purpose by a cowardly pack. A soul of a Man, anchor of a family, providence of a community, and The potential of Our Nation has been forgotten. No remnants of his impact. No grave, No glory, No gesture of Justice from the body politic...The Sun continued to rise and set amidst the decaying lifeless body placed in the ground…. A seed crying out for justice refuses to sprout..The deafening tyranny of terror has hardened the topsoil of Our hearts….And We All remain buried...

A Tribute to John Ashworth by Fred Morton

On the occasion of his final presentation as executive director of LSP Memphis, I wanted to add my voice to the continuing chorus of accolades for his outstanding service to this deeply important work. I can think of no one who stands higher in my humble regard than John Ashworth. He brings to this work a zeal and seriousness that does not allow one to ignore the truth to which he bears relentless witness. He is an ever flowing fountain of inspiration and stimulation. He never speaks without divulging pertinent and timeless truth.

9/28/20: John Ashworth, outgoing LSP Executive Director, "Roots of Racism"

Reimagining Policing? by Tom Momberg

“So I went South. Because I was afraid to go South.’ Baldwin, forever the blues man, ran toward the trouble.”
~ Eddie S. Glaude, Jr., Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own, p. 48

7/13/20: Dr. LaSimba Gray, Metamorphosis of Memphis: the Blues and Beale Street 1819-2019

My thoughts: Whither Larry Payne, civil rights and hallowed grounds? by Clarence Christian

My thoughts: Whither Larry Payne, civil rights and hallowed grounds?

by Clarence Christian

Posted: Feb. 27, 2016

The Commercial Appeal

News accounts say he was repelled by a blast to the stomach from a 12-gauge shotgun, fired in self-defense by an officer of the law. It happened around 12:50 p.m. on March 28, 1968.

6/8/20: Dr. Jackie Irvine and Karen Branan, The Family Tree

We were honored to have Dr. Jackie Irvine and Karen Branan as guest speakers at our virtual LSP meeting on Zoom, Monday June 8 at 5:00 pm CST. Dr. Jacqueline Jordan Irvine is the Charles Howard Candler Professor of Urban Education Emerita at Emory University and the author of numerous books and the recipient of countless awards.

LSP’S LETTER TO THE MINNEAPOLIS DISTRICT ATTORNEY AND MAYOR IN RESPONSE TO THE MURDER OF GEORGE FLOYD

On behalf of the Lynching Sites Project of Memphis, we write to share our profound distress over the totally unwarranted, unnecessary, and theatrical murder of George Floyd. We stand with our brothers and sisters protesting in the streets over this egregious, outrageous murder.

We write to join the growing multitude of voices across this country urging that justice be served and police officers arrested and tried for murder, and we commend the Mayor of Minneapolis for coming out in support of the arrest of the officers who acted with such wanton disregard for human life.

The Lynching of Ahmaud Arbery by Carla Peacher-Ryan

As I have absorbed the horrors of the latest lynching of a black person by allegedly frightened white people, I have tried to give words to a thought that has been percolating for me for some time – which is, as black people arrived on these shores in chains, and have been brutalized, oppressed and subjugated ever since, and are a minority in America – what is the basis of this white irrational fear of the black body?

5/11/20: Margaret Haltom, The Next Southern Landmark

Ida B. Wells Honored with Posthumous Pulitzer

Ida B. Wells Honored with Posthumous Pulitzer

by Equal Justice Initiative

LYNCHING SITES PROJECT MEMPHIS: A GOOD AND HOLY WORK by Fred Morton

As I will be vacating the Board of Lynching Sites Project of Memphis July 1, this is my valedictory statement about work with this very significant organization in our community.

LYNCHING SITES PROJECT MEMPHIS: A GOOD AND HOLY WORK

by Fred Morton

April 26, 2020

4/27/20: David Johnson, Transitional Justice

Presentation by David Johnson, Thomas Watson Fellow '19 to the Lynching Sites Project of Memphis (LSP) on his independently designed global exploration of how countries reconcile with their past in Northern Ireland, Germany, Twanda, South Africa, Chile, and Peru

News

Why It's Time for Me to Listen by Steve Strain

4/12/21, Barbara Williams: "The Death and Remembrance of Tuskegee Pilot 2nd Lieutenant Walter Payton Manning"

3/8/21, Michelle Duster and Laura Faith Kebede: "Virtual Book Tour with Michelle Duster"

LSP’S LETTER TO THE GOVERNOR OF TENNESSEE IN RESPONSE TO THE IMPENDING EXECUTION OF PERVIS PAYNE

1/25/21, Lamont Turner: "Will Franklin's 'Fuller Story' Heal its Open Civil War Wound?"

A Life of Truth by Tom Momberg

A Life of Truth

LSP in 2020 by Tom Momberg

Requiem for Justice: Lest We Forget Luther Billings by Rev. Dr. Kevin A. Brooks

A Tribute to John Ashworth by Fred Morton

9/28/20: John Ashworth, outgoing LSP Executive Director, "Roots of Racism"

Reimagining Policing? by Tom Momberg

7/13/20: Dr. LaSimba Gray, Metamorphosis of Memphis: the Blues and Beale Street 1819-2019

My thoughts: Whither Larry Payne, civil rights and hallowed grounds? by Clarence Christian

My thoughts: Whither Larry Payne, civil rights and hallowed grounds?

6/8/20: Dr. Jackie Irvine and Karen Branan, The Family Tree

LSP’S LETTER TO THE MINNEAPOLIS DISTRICT ATTORNEY AND MAYOR IN RESPONSE TO THE MURDER OF GEORGE FLOYD

The Lynching of Ahmaud Arbery by Carla Peacher-Ryan

5/11/20: Margaret Haltom, The Next Southern Landmark

Ida B. Wells Honored with Posthumous Pulitzer

Ida B. Wells Honored with Posthumous Pulitzer

LYNCHING SITES PROJECT MEMPHIS: A GOOD AND HOLY WORK by Fred Morton

4/27/20: David Johnson, Transitional Justice

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