Lynching Sites Projects speaks to Shelby County's history of racial violence

In the morning light of May 22, 1917, an estimated 5,000 people gathered at the Wolf River near present-day Summer Avenue to lynch and decapitate fifty-year-old Ell Persons. No one was ever charged in the murder.
 
As Memphis approaches the 100th anniversary of this act of terror, the Lynching Sites Project of Memphis has hired John Ashworth on as project manager to organize a prayer vigil to mark the occasion.
 
Ashworth is a retired military veteran who has studied African-American history in Haywood County, Tenn. since 2007 where he opened a small museum. He is interested in subverting the traditional narrative and telling the story of African-Americans as actors rather than as victims.
 
“The victim story has been told many times over,” Ashworth said.
 
“This country is what it is because (African-Americans) gave our full share and our full measure, as everyone else did. The difference is that we were denied the benefits of our labor,” he said.
 
“When we look today at the problems in the black neighborhoods, we can look back and see that is because we were denied the benefits of our contributions. So, it’s important now to go back and look and understand the truth.”

The Lynching Sites Project describes itself as “part of a growing network of citizens who want the whole and accurate truth to be told about the history of Shelby County.” The initiative has researched, documented, and created markers for lynchings in the area for a little over a year as part of a national effort by Bryan Stevenson and the Equal Justice Initiative to memorialize over 4,000 known lynchings in the United States between 1877 and 1950.

Ashworth joined with the Lynching Sites Project in early January and describes their work as “peeling back the pages of history to see what really happened.” As project manager, Ashworth will be making the 100th anniversary event possible and hopes that Memphis will confront its painful past by showing up.
“This is an opportunity for Memphis in particular and the Mid-South in general to demonstrate how far we have come,” Ashworth said.
 
“The question now for Memphis and the Mid-South is: how many of you will turn out in a prayer vigil for something very horrific? Now is a good time for Memphis to come and say to the world, we are much better than that. We have moved this much further ahead,” he added. “Certainly, not everyone is going to do that; but, I think there should be an equal, if not greater, turn out for this event on May 21st of this year than there was for the lynching of Ell Persons.”
 
Ashworth believes it is Important to revisit this history of terrorism to appreciate how it has shaped our country to this day. He points to the connection between the denial of wealth to African-Americans and their displacement after the Civil War as parallel to the denial of equal access to education, opportunity, wealth, and healthcare in black communities today.
 
“We all have a way of forgetting and not talking about those things in our past that are painful. You look at the amount of markers and monuments for the Confederate cause in the south. Even though people lost their lives, we see that as less horrific to talk about than the lynchings that occurred,” said Ashworth.
 
“I’m encouraged that there are so many people now who are willing to begin this very difficult conversation. And I realize the point we’re in now is highly polarized politically and it’d be easy to listen to a lot of noise and say that race relations are really worse today than they were. I personally don’t think that’s true, but, what I’m finding is that across this country, we are saying that we need to have this conversation.