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.

“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 

Posted: Feb. 27, 2016

The Commercial Appeal 

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.

On behalf of the Lynching Sites Project of Memphis, we write to share our profound distress over the totally unwarranted, unnecessary, and ​theatrical ​murder of George Floyd. We stand with our brothers and sisters protesting in the streets over this egregious, outrageous murder.

We write to join the growing multitude of voices across this country urging that justice be served and police officers arrested ​and tried for murder​, and we commend the Mayor of Minneapolis for coming out in support of the arrest of the officers who acted with such wanton disregard for human life.

As I will be vacating the Board of Lynching Sites Project of Memphis July 1, this is my valedictory statement about work with this very significant organization in our community.

LYNCHING SITES PROJECT MEMPHIS:  A GOOD AND HOLY WORK

by Fred Morton 

April 26, 2020

Dear Lynching Sites Project (LSP) Community:

I don’t know about you, but I’m learning how to stay safe and healthy by keeping my distance. “Social distancing” is our new watchword in these trying, COVID-19 times.

And yet, as LSP, community is who we are.  As we learn how to “shelter in place” (another new phrase), you and I can take comfort - shelter - in the fact that our work will continue.

Black History 105 Years Later: Do we still need Black History Month?

By John Ashworth, Executive Director, LSP

The ritual of soil collection is an integral part of our work of remembering and lamenting the great horrors of racial violence committed throughout our land and in this very county.

Lives were viciously taken without due process or legal consideration of any kind. It was a form of racial violence calculated to discount and trivialize persons of color even to the extent of desecrating the remains of the victims and denying to kin and friend the decency of burial and sacred remembrance. These victims' lives were snatched from public memory as if they never lived.