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.
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.
The Red Record: People's Grocery PART 1
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.
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.
LSP’S LETTER TO THE GOVERNOR OF TENNESSEE IN RESPONSE TO THE IMPENDING EXECUTION OF PERVIS PAYNE
March 19, 2021
The Honorable Governor of Tennessee
1st Floor, State Capitol
Nashville, TN 37243
Re: Scheduled Execution of Pervis Payne
Dear Governor Lee,
A Life of Truth by Tom Momberg
A Life of Truth
One of the most beautifully disturbing questions we can ask is whether a given story we tell about our lives is actually true, and whether the opinions we go over every day have any foundation or are things we repeat to ourselves simply so that we will continue to play the game. It can be quite disorienting to find that a story we have relied on is not only not true - it actually never was true. Not now, not ever. ~ David Whyte
LSP in 2020 by Tom Momberg
December 23, 2020
From the President of the Board of the Lynching Sites Project:
In his 1962 bestseller The Fire Next Time, James Baldwin wrote that “whatever white people do not know about (Black people) reveals, precisely and inexorably, what they do not know about themselves.”
Over the past eighteen months, in several significant ways, I have continued to learn about the culture of white privilege and superiority in which I was raised and have lived all my life. My Black sisters and brothers keep teaching me about this.
Requiem for Justice: Lest We Forget Luther Billings by Rev. Dr. Kevin A. Brooks
On October 10, 1905, a human life was taken from chronicles of time. Robbed of divine purpose by a cowardly pack. A soul of a Man, anchor of a family, providence of a community, and The potential of Our Nation has been forgotten. No remnants of his impact. No grave, No glory, No gesture of Justice from the body politic...The Sun continued to rise and set amidst the decaying lifeless body placed in the ground…. A seed crying out for justice refuses to sprout..The deafening tyranny of terror has hardened the topsoil of Our hearts….And We All remain buried...
A Tribute to John Ashworth by Fred Morton
On the occasion of his final presentation as executive director of LSP Memphis, I wanted to add my voice to the continuing chorus of accolades for his outstanding service to this deeply important work. I can think of no one who stands higher in my humble regard than John Ashworth. He brings to this work a zeal and seriousness that does not allow one to ignore the truth to which he bears relentless witness. He is an ever flowing fountain of inspiration and stimulation. He never speaks without divulging pertinent and timeless truth.
Reimagining Policing? by Tom Momberg
“So I went South. Because I was afraid to go South.’ Baldwin, forever the blues man, ran toward the trouble.”
~ Eddie S. Glaude, Jr., Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own, p. 48
My thoughts: Whither Larry Payne, civil rights and hallowed grounds? by Clarence Christian
My thoughts: Whither Larry Payne, civil rights and hallowed grounds?
by Clarence Christian
Posted: Feb. 27, 2016
News accounts say he was repelled by a blast to the stomach from a 12-gauge shotgun, fired in self-defense by an officer of the law. It happened around 12:50 p.m. on March 28, 1968.