Ell Persons, May 21st Commemoration Wolf River
Volunteer Opportunities - Summer 2017
LSP member Prof. Margaret Vandiver is hoping to make some progress on LSP research this summer and would welcome help from anyone who has the time and the interest! Here’s what she's hoping to work on:
Hundreds Gather to Oppose to Memphis’ Confederate Monuments
One by one, dozens of people — black, white, young and old, a descendant of slave trader Nathan Bedford Forrest and descendants of slaves — spoke out against the monuments, namely those of Forrest and the singular Confederate States president Jefferson Davis, that sit in city parks.
The 9:01: Memphians gather to launch movement against Confederate monuments
Roughly 50 more Memphians followed last night at Bruce Elementary School, in the first public meeting of Memphians for Removal of Confederate Monuments, speaking in favor of removing Memphis monuments to former Confederate President Jefferson Davis and Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest. They spoke beneath a pre-existing, hand-colored banner proclaiming “We Are Conquerors,” an apparently unconnected piece of school paraphernalia. Perhaps it will prove prophetic.
EJI Launches Lynching in America Interactive Online Experience
EJI is excited to announce today's official launch of Lynching in America, a new interactive digital experience created in partnership with Google.
The lynching of Ell Persons finds a lasting imprint on the Memphis NAACP chapter
“We took it to heart. On the 100th year (of Ell Persons’ lynching), we could do something major and involve the whole community in another way…so we started working,” said Pan Awsumb, volunteer with the Lynching Sites Project.
Seeking repentance for a 100-year-old lynching
On Sunday afternoon, in a field between the Wolf River and a miniature golf course, several hundred people met under a tent. From a stage brimming with Memphis interfaith leaders, musicians and high school students organized by the Lynching Sites Project, words affirming the purpose for gathering were spoken: Prayer, repentance and healing from the events that happened 100 years ago on the same land.
Ceremony Of Remembrance Commemorates Brutal Lynching One Hundred Years Ago
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (localmemphis.com) - Exactly one century ago, Michelle Lisa Whitney's great uncle - Ell Persons - died a brutal death, as a large crowd gathered to watch a white mob burn the woodcutter alive, decapitate, and dismember him near the Wolf River in what today is northeast Memphis.
"The thing that really gets to me is the suffering," Michelle said.
Ell Persons lynching remembered 100 years later
On the surface, there appeared to be little common ground and little to celebrate.
A 16-year-old white girl, murdered while bicycling across a bridge on her way to school, and a black woodcutter who lived nearby burned alive for the crime. Two tragedies, no legal resolution to either.
And yet, not one but two gatherings Sunday afternoon found joy in loss, hope in injustice.
Present Day Issues Surface in Centennial of Persons Lynching
The interfaith prayer ceremony Sunday, May 21, marking the centennial of the lynching of Ell Persons included several mentions of the removal of Confederate monuments in the last month in New Orleans.
But during the two-hour ceremony in a field off Summer Avenue near the lynching site there were no overt calls for the city of Memphis to take the same approach of removing such monuments without advance notice.
U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen of Memphis called the actions in New Orleans “commendable.”
Descendants of 1917 lynching's 2 victims gather for truth, healing
Descendants of both victims — the black man who was lynched and the white girl he was falsely accused of murdering — plan to be here for Sunday's prayer service.
The two women, one from Chicago, the other from Memphis, plan to go down to the river, rain or shine, to stand and pray with hundreds of others near the site of both brutal murders.
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"We have to acknowledge and address the pain before we can begin to heal," said Laura Wilfong Miller. Her great-grandmother and Antonetty Rappel's mother were sisters.
Bringing a century-old tragedy to life
He was burned alive while at least 5,000 spectators stood by watching near the Wolf River.
On the day of his death, The Commercial Appeal published a headline alerting the public of the intended lynching. After being burned to death, parts of his charred, dismembered body were taken to Beale Street and thrown at black pedestrians.
His name was Ell Persons; and though his murder made national headlines on May 22, 1917, it was quickly forgotten and rarely mentioned.
An interview with Sylvester Lewis on the history of Gray's Creek Baptist church African Americans in the ArlingtonEades Community
Sylvester Lewis on the history of Gray's Creek MB Church and the lynching of Jesse Lee Bond in Arlington TN, April 28, 1939.
Groups Prepare for Persons’ Lynching Centennial
When a pair of new historical markers on Summer Avenue are unveiled later this month, it will be the latest milestone in current discussions about what happened long ago in Memphis.
The markers will be unveiled at and near the site where Ell Persons was burned by a lynch mob 100 years ago this month.
The May 21 ceremony marks 100 years to the day that a group of men took Persons from a train bringing him back to the city to stand trial for the rape, murder and decapitation of 16-year-old Antoinette Rappel.
Hard History: The Lynching Sites Project
Many thanks to Martha Parks and the Memphis Flyer for this wonderful article about the involvement of high school students in the Ell Persons story:
This time last year, the 100th anniversary of Ell Persons' lynching seemed far on the horizon. A lot has happened over the course of the year, as Memphians have rallied around the work of the Lynching Sites Project.
Central High School presentation
Dr. Andre Johnson and Dr. Margaret Vandiver from The Lynching Sites Project of Memphis speaking at Central High School about the lynching of Ell Persons.
The 9:01: Plan Ahead - Five Things to do in May and more
The upcoming Interfaith Prayer Ceremony on May 21, 2017 is on the CA's list of "Five things to do in May":
Activists work to commemorate ignored part of Memphis history
Some Memphians are trying to make sure a dark chapter of our history is not forgotten.
There are about 200 historical markers in Memphis, but only one of them commemorates a lynching: the People's Grocery marker at Walker Avenue and Mississippi Boulevard.
Activists are trying to change that.
Lynching Sites Project said each of the more than 30 recorded lynchings that happened in Shelby County since the Civil War should be recognized and remembered.