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Listen to Christie Taylor's recent (Jan 14, 2018) WRBO radio interview with our own John Ashworth and Margaret Vandiver, for an account of the work of the Lynching Sites Project and how it connects with the issues of race in 2018. It is about a half hour in length but begins with 3-5 minutes of music - feel free to skip ahead to the interview.

The Lynching Sites Project of Memphis enthusiastically supports the removal of the statues of Nathan Bedford Forrest and Jefferson Davis. Our deep thanks goes out to TakeEmDown901, the Mayor, city legal team, the City Council and many others. Our mission is to locate and memorialize all the sites of lynchings that took place in Shelby County.

Few Memphians know this history, so for the past three months students in my Historical Methods class at Rhodes College have been researching and writing about slavery and the slave trade in Memphis.

Servente’s other award was for “An Accidental Drowning” in the MLK50 Hometowner category, a special competition for films with racial and social justice themes created in recognition of the upcoming observance of the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s trips to Memphis in support of striking sanitation workers, which ended in the civil rights leader's assassination at the Lorraine Motel.

EJI Partners with Community to Honor Lynching Victims in Chattanooga, Tenn.

 

In this soil, there is the sweat of the enslaved. In the soil there is the blood of victims of racial violence and lynching. There are tears in the soil from all those who labored under the indignation and humiliation of segregation. But in the soil there is also the opportunity for new life, a chance to grow something hopeful and healing for the future.

- EJI Director Bryan Stevenson

A friend of mine decided to begin a group to talk about racism in his church and modeled it after Alcoholics Anonymous/Twelve-Step groups in which members begin meetings by saying “my name is ____ and I am an alcoholic.”

Facing History and Ourselves is an organization that helps high school students recognize racism, anti-semitism, and all forms of bigotry so they can prevent it from happening in the future. It empowers students through knowledge of self and history so that they can become upstanders, people who will stand up and act for justice on behalf of their community.