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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.

The service brought out officials like Congressman Steve Cohen and Mayors Jim Strickland and Mark Luttrell.

“This is a special day in Memphis when people of goodwill have come together to reflect on an incident 100 years ago when people of ill will took the law into their own hands,” Cohen said during the prayer service.

"We can't right the wrong of 100 years ago," Strickland said. "But we acknowledge the wrong so that all our community is aware and all of our community remembers. Today, we gather as a community to remember and to celebrate ... to encourage healing."

Faith leaders across Memphis led the crowd in prayer and hymns.

Direct descendants were located for the ceremony. In attendance were Michele Whitney of Chicago, a great grand-niece of Persons, and Laura Miller of Memphis, whose great-grandmother was Rappel’s aunt.

High Ground News
Source date: 
May 24 2017 (all day)
Tags: 
High Ground News
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Ell Persons

May 22 1917 (all day)

A Brief Version of the Lynching of Ell Persons on May 22, 1917

In May, 1917 the decapitated body of a 16 year old white girl, named Antoinette Rappel, a student at...

Research material

News Scimitar, 5/3/1917 (Photos of Antoinette Rappal)

Police Report, 5/4/1917

Indictment, 5/8/1917

News Scimitar, 5/8/1917

Request for Troops, 5/17/1917

Commercial Appeal, 5/17/1917

Evening Star, 5/22/1917

Hickory Daily Record, 5/22/1917

The Seattle Star, 5/22/1917

The Tacoma Times, 5/22/1917

News Scimitar, 5/22/1917 (Lynch bulletins)

Commercial Appeal, 5/22/1917

Commercial Appeal, 5/23/1917

Columbus Commercial, 5/24/1917

Covington Leader, 5/24/1917

Putnam County Herald, 5/24/1917

Ell Persons Death Certificate, 5/24/1917

McNairy County Independent, 5/25/1917

NAACP Supplement to the Crisis, July 1917

News

A couple say farewell to Memphis after 'grueling but healing' work on the Lynching Sites Project, by David Waters

The Daily Memphian

How Soil Acts as a Living Witness to Racial Violence by Leanna First-Arai

Yes! Magazine

How the South Memorializes — and Forgets — Its History of Lynching

TIME

GROWING DOWN INTO THE GOODNESS OF OUR GRIEF Grief in the Life of the Lynching Sites Project

Pilgrimage Reflections by Tom Thrailkill

LSP Memphis by Tom Haley

Thomas Haley Vimeo

Opinion | Lynching memorial honors victims' bodies and souls

The Commercial Appeal
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/28/lens/echoes-of-lynchings-in-quiet-photos.html

Echoes of Lynchings in Quiet Photos

The New York Times

Statue Removal-Letter to the Editor

"The Way To Make Things Right" by Rabbi Micah Greenstein

Responsible for Remembering

Watch Love Work
http://facingtoday.facinghistory.org/author/michele-whitney

How The Legacy of Ell Persons Lives On With Michele Whitney

Facing History and Ourselves
https://youtu.be/j3vgxRLR2uQ

Ell Persons, May 21st Commemoration Wolf River

Ell Persons, May 21st Commemoration Wolf River

Michele Whitney Remarks on May 21st

Memphis Students Unite Their Community 100 Years After A Lynching

Stacey Perlman, Facing Today

Seeking repentance for a 100-year-old lynching

Andrea Morales, MLK50

Ceremony Of Remembrance Commemorates Brutal Lynching One Hundred Years Ago

Brad Broders, Local Memphis

Present Day Issues Surface in Centennial of Persons Lynching

Bill Dries, Memphis Daily News

Ell Persons lynching remembered 100 years later

Ron Maxey, Commercial Appeal
(Photo: Jim Weber/The Commercial Appeal)

Descendants of 1917 lynching's 2 victims gather for truth, healing

David Waters, Commercial Appeal
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