"The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them."
–Ida B. Wells
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.
Queener and Ashworth fight to make sure Tennessee’s racial injustices are never forgotten
MAR 5, 2020 5 AM
Black History 105 Years Later: Do we still need Black History Month?
By John Ashworth, Executive Director, LSP
Nothing To See Here: Facing Racial Terror to Heal Its Festering Wounds
Grounds for Democracy
The Cultural Landscape Foundation
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.
by Meghna Chakrabarti and Dorey Scheimer
October 23, 2019
WBUR
Click here to listen to LSP Executive Director, John Ashworh along with Rep. James Clyburn, NYT columnist Charles Blow, and award-winning author Isabel Wilkerson talk about President Trump likening the impeachment inquiry to a lynching, and the political weaponisation of one of the darkest parts of American history.
On Saturday, October 19, 2019, the Lynching Sites Project of Memphis dedicated two markers to African American victims lynched in Shelby County, Tennessee. One was killed in 1851 and the other in 1869. I have long contended that there is a straight line between the events of yesteryear and the way African Americans are treated and perceived by very powerful and influential voices today.
The name of the 1851 victim is unknown, but for purposes of this article, I refer to him as George. The 1869 victim was Wash Henley.
What does it take to bring a past wrought with racism into the present, to provide truth and justice through unfiltered education? History tells us it is something you and I possess: courage.
A murder deserves justice whether it happened yesterday or more than 160 years ago. When we try, in the words of Ida B. Wells, to right wrongs by shining the light of truth on them, we begin to show the courage it takes to correct the transgressions of those who came before us.
A couple say farewell to Memphis after 'grueling but healing' work on the Lynching Sites Project
by David Waters
The Daily Memphian
About 50 family, friends and fans gathered at Caritas Village one day last week to say goodbye to Rev. Randall Mullins and his wife, Sharon Pavelda. They are moving to the Seattle area.
Randall Mullins and Sharon Pavelda, founding members of The Lynching Sites Project of Memphis, were honored to attend the swearing-in ceremony today of the first female County Public defender, our very own Phyllis Aluko. She also made history as the first African American in the office here in Shelby County!
Too often, discussions about race either stay at surface-level or happen only among audiences steeped in knowledge about sociology, history, systemic racism and privilege. The goal of the Race Cards is to facilitate honest, authentic discussion around race in a way that is accessible to everyone.
Dr. Shytierra Gaston, a criminal justice professor at Northeastern University in Boston, MA, is currently recruiting and interviewing families/descendants of victims of fatal racial violence (including racial lynchings) that occurred in the U.S. anytime after 1865. The purpose of the study is to document the intergenerational harms of racial violence, give voice to families, and illuminate the role of the government (e.g., the police) in racial violence and oppression.
Please see flyer below for details about the interviews.
by Matthew Peddie (WMFE)
A group of activists and historians has been working to recognize the victims of the Ocoee massacre on election day in 1920.
GETTING COMFORTABLE WITH BEING UNCOMFORTABLE
A Sermon on Luke 6:27-36
Sometimes, you just have to tear up your sermon and start all over again. That's what Traci Blackmon, a black United Church of Christ pastor said to Mike Kinman, a white Episcopal priest, the day after Michael Brown was shot and died in Ferguson, Missouri - August 9, 2014.
An oft-asked question during February, what is the purpose of a Black History Month?
