"The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them."
–Ida B. Wells
These men and this story need to be remembered by white Memphians in a spirit of reverence and repentance. Their memory should be honored by all of us as respected, successful citizens.
On May 22, 1917, at the Old Wolf River bridge, a black man was doused with gasoline and thrown alive into a bonfire. Five thousand people watched. The crowd was unusually large because of an announcement of the place and time in the Memphis press and the fact that a number of county schools had been let out early so students could attend.
A local church-based group is working to locate and memorialize the site of every post-Civil War lynching in Shelby County.
The group, which is calling itself "Responding to Racism," is led by three retirees, all white and all members of First Congregational Church.
Rev. Randall Mullins, a retired United Church of Christ minister, sent an email to more than a dozen local clergy on Friday asking them to join the effort and recruit others.