News

History, Justice & The Journalists

Inspired by the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crimes Act of 2008, WKNO takes a look at the role of local journalists in reporting on racial inequality in American society, with video segments exploring two of the recently reexamined historic cases from West Tennessee, the 1940 murder of NAACP member and voting registration activist Elbert Williams in Brownsville TN, and the 1968 death of teenager Larry Payne during the events of the Sanitation Workers Strike. The panel discussion features veteran Memphis journalists Karanja Ajanaku, Otis Sanford, Wendi C.

LSP Testifies in Legislative Hearing: Evaluating Lynching Locations (ELL) for National Parks

MEMPHIS, TN - The Lynching Sites Project of Memphis (LSP) Board President, Rich Watkins, will testify before the Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests, and Public Lands at a legislative hearing on H. R. 7912. This hearing is scheduled to be held on July 14, 2022, at 10:00 a.m. ET in 1324 Longworth House Office Building and via WebEx. The hearing will be live-streamed on the Committee’s YouTube page.

6/13/22, Alice Faye Duncan: "The Ghost of Thomas Brooks"

Family fights for memory of lynching victim with memorial marker

Commemoration of the 105th Anniversary of the Lynching of Ell Persons - May 22, 2022

Laura Faith Kebede Launches New Project Exploring Racial Injustice

May 10, 2022 — The University of Memphis’ Institute for Public Service Reporting (IPSR) is launching a new investigative journalism project to explore racial injustice in the Mid-South and is hiring a veteran journalist to head it up.

Michele Whitney Remarks on the May 21st Ell Persons Memorial Service, 2017

Lynching Sites Project of Memphis Receives National Grant Funding

We are honored and proud to report that the Lynching Sites Project of Memphis has received $25,000 dollars in funding from the Telling the Full History Fund—a grant program from the National Trust for Historic Preservation and made possible through the National Endowment for the Humanities’ American Rescue Plan Humanities Grantmaking for Organizations. To learn more about this program, visit https://savingplaces.org/neh-telling-full-history#.YlCHgm7MLDI

March 2022 Valor High Visit to Ell Persons Lynching Site

On Monday, March 21, 2022, around 20 students from Valor Christian School in Colorado made a return trip to Memphis to visit LSP's Ell Person's lynching site. This trip was part of their Spring Work Visit project. Good Shepherd United Methodist Church graciously hosted the group prior to the site visit, and LSP Board member John D Ashworth provided a spellbinding explication of the generational impact of slavery and racial violence on persons of color. LSP member Kelsey Lampkin gave a brief reprise of the incident and its impact on Memphis a century ago.

"A Library Has Been Lost," by John Ashworth

Since hearing the news of Sylvester Lewis’s passing my mind has been racing to put context to what it is that we lost. Sylvester’s passing was not only a loss for LSP but for the larger community beyond the borders of Shelby County. It was in my capacity as the Lynching Sites of Memphis (LSP) Project Manager for the 100th Memorialization of the lynching of Ell Persons that I met Sylvester in his capacity as Vice Chairperson of the Shelby County Historical Commission (SCHC).

The Red Record: Say his name: Unidentified victim, 1851

In this episode, we talk with Jen Bennie, a researcher with Lynching Sites Project and the host of the YouTube channel "Walk with History." She investigated a case of an unnamed man who was lynched in Memphis on Jan , 1851. In this case, Black man shot the county clerk who declared his freedom papers a forgery as he attempted to board a boat headed north. It is the first recorded lynching in Shelby County and extremely rare to happen before the Civil War. Though more than two dozen papers reported the lynching, none mentioned his name.

Do you think lynchings were a form of entertainment for racists?

The Red Record: What is Lynching? Part 2: Violence against Asian-Americans

Expanding on what we discussed in episode 3, Dr. Beth Lew-Williams shares the similarities and differences between lynching in the American West and South, especially as it relates to violence against Asian-Americans. “The Chinese Must Go: Violence, Exclusion, and the Making of the Alien in America.”

The Red Record: What is Lynching? Part 1: Racial Terror in the South

Dr. Margaret Vandiver breaks down the definition of lynching throughout American history and why it matters.

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.

7/26/21, Otis Sanford: "Justice Journalism - Otis Sanford on Ida B. Wells"

The Red Record: People's Grocery PART 1

Introducing “The Red Record” podcast: detailing stories of lynching

It’s one thing to know about lynching, and quite another to get to know the victims and communities affected by racial violence.

Lynching Sites Project’s new podcast, “The Red Record,” seeks to introduce listeners to the cases we know about in Shelby County and put them in context of what was going on in Memphis at the time. These horrific crimes did not happen in a vacuum. Racist actions and policies created the environment for lynching to happen, and the community trauma had long-lasting effects we still feel today — whether we realize it or not.

Reflections on the Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial by Tom Momberg

Reflections on the Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial

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.