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–Ida B. Wells

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In 1892, Memphis and the world showed Thomas Moss HATE. Today, we can show his descendants LOVE.

Courtesy University of Chicago, via Nathaniel C. Ball, MA of The Benjamin L. Hooks Institute for Social Change.

In 1961,Thomas Moss’ granddaughter Haroldine purchased a home in Altadena California. Thomas Moss was one of the three lynching victims of the 1892 Peoples Grocery. Moss and his wife were best friends with Ida B Wells, and their friendship inspired her anti-lynching campaign after his violent murder in Memphis.  Wells and Moss’ widow left Memphis heeding Moss’ last words “Tell my people to go West, there is no justice for them here.” 

Thomas Moss’ daughter Maurine, had a daughter named Haroldine.  Haroldine passed her California home onto her son Robin and his wife Valerie in 2009. That home recently was lost in the 2025 California Eaton Fire. If you would like to help rebuilt the ancestral home of the Moss family, they have set up a GoFundMe that goes directly to this historic family.

LSP member Jenn Bennie had a conversation with Robin and Valerie’s son Robert (Thomas Moss’ great-great grandson) about his family’s historical legacy and impact to one of the most influential women in America, Ida B Wells.  Click here to watch that recording.  


Without the love and friendship of Thomas Moss, there would be no Ida B Wells. Let’s remember their family’s legacy to give and/or learn about this important event in American History.  

 

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The People's Grocery Lynchings (Thomas Moss, Will Stewart, Calvin McDowell)

Mar 9 1892 (all day)

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...

Research material

Polk's City Directory, 1891

Illustration from Memphis Appeal Avalanche, 3/10/1892

Memphis Appeal Avalanche, 3/10/1892

New York Sun 3-10-1892

New York Sun, 3/10/1892

New York Times, 3/10/1892

New York Times, 3/11/1892

Appeal Avalanche, Drawings of Calvin McDowell and Thomas Moss

Appeal Avalanche, Drawings of Calvin McDowell and Thomas Moss, 3/28/1892

Photo: Ida B. Wells, Maurine Moss, Betty Moss, and Tom Moss, Jr.

People's Grocery Historical Marker

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

News

Ida B. Wells – The Light of Truth

YouTube

The Red Record: People's Grocery PART 2

The Red Record: People's Grocery PART 1

Ida B. Wells: The Lynching at the Curve (Feature film coming 2018)

The Benjamin L. Hooks Institute for Social Change
Illustration of the Peoples Grocery Lynching from the March 10th, 1892 edition of the Memphis Appeal-Avalanche

How the Location of the Peoples Grocery Lynching Was Rediscovered

Local news coverage of the 125th anniversary of People's Grocery Lynchings

Focusing on local history (Commercial Appeal Letter to the Editor)

Commercial Appeal, Letters to the Editor, 3/9/2017

History: Ida B. Wells

Ida B. Wells-Barnett and Her Passion for Justice, by Lee D. Baker
Site of the lynching (modern day)

Memphis and the Lynching at the Curve

The Benjamin L. Hooks Institute for Social Change (Nathaniel Collins Ball)
Content © Copyright The Lynching Sites Project of Memphis and respective authors
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