This is the irrational season
When love blooms bright and wild.
Had Mary been filled with reason,
There’d have been no room for the child.
—Madeleine L’Engle
December, 2016
Dear Friends,
Our life stories are important. History matters. Many would say memory is sacred and that real human community is not possible without it. We belong to one another as human beings through the common stories of our families, our nation and our local community.
In the work of The Lynching Sites Project of Memphis we continue to discover buried stories of the tragic realities of racial violence that were either ignored or in which those guilty were never brought to justice. In many cases the lynching murders of African Americans in Shelby County were given support by some religious leaders, by elected leaders, and by a majority of local white citizens. We need to face this history and create new stories and memories.
We are writing to invite you to join in this work by making a contribution. Your gifts will support:
- The growing number of area high school students who want to engage in facing our history.
- Audio and video records of the stories which will be archived at the Benjamin J. Hooks Jr. Institute for Social Change at the University of Memphis.
- Engaging local congregations in the spiritual work of telling all the truth about the past.
- A major city-wide interfaith prayer service in May 2017. We hope you’ll be there.
- Listening Circles where we create safe spaces for the conversations that matter about race.
The information on this site provides more information about this important work: About | History | Supporters.
Tax deductible donations can be made through the Community Foundation of Greater Memphis (link), or you may mail checks made out to:
Community Foundation of Greater Memphis,
1900 Union Avenue, Memphis, TN 38104
In the "For" line on the check, write “The Lynching Sites Project Fund”
Thank you for caring about the stories that make us a community.
Members of The Leadership Council
The Lynching Sites Project of Memphis
Pan Awsumb, Laryn Kragt Bakker,
Prof. Tom Carlson, Rev. Laura Gettys,
Rabbi Micah Greenstein, David Marshall,
Rev. Randall Mullins, Carla Peacher-Ryan,
Prof. Margaret Vandiver, Rev. Dr. Gayle Walker