Historical markers will show ‘how hate can afflict a community’
Two markers will memorialize the tragic and shameful events that occurred here in the spring of 1917.
Both markers, approved Thursday by the Shelby County Historical Commission, will mention the two victims of those events.
Antoinette Rappel, a 15-year-old white girl who was brutally assaulted and murdered on her way to school April 30, 1917.
Ell Persons, a 50-something black woodcutter accused of the crime who was brutally assaulted and murdered by a lynch mob May 22 that year.
Both markers will document the racist rush to judgment that allowed killers to go free.
That "city police reportedly believed the true culprit was white, while the county sheriff directed the investigation toward African American woodcutters."
That "in building a case against Persons, authorities relied primarily on coerced confessions made 'after a long siege of beating' and 'third-degree tactics.'"
That "groups of white men known as avengers monitored all rail lines into Memphis as Persons' trial date approached ... overpowered two Shelby County deputies (and) seized Persons."
That "no one was brought to trial in either the Rappel or Persons slayings."
Both markers will acknowledge the ignorance, hate and fear that can afflict an entire community.
That "news reports in Memphis the next morning stated the time and place where Persons would be lynched."
That "an estimated 5,000 spectators witnessed his death or viewed his remains ... a carnival atmosphere prevailed here as automobiles jammed Macon Road and vendors sold drinks and snacks."
That "some onlookers took pieces of the body for souvenirs. Others dismembered what was left of Persons and drove to Beale Street where they threw his head and a foot at African American pedestrians."
Both markers are products of months of work by local ministers, historians, teachers, civil rights advocates and high school students.
One will be placed along the east bank of the Wolf River by the old Macon Road bridge.
That's where a mob of white men chained Persons to a log, doused him with gasoline, burned him alive, then mutilated his body.
That marker is the result of a joint effort by the Memphis Lynching Sites Project, the local chapter of the NAACP, and the National Park Service.
The Lynching Sites Project is a faithbased group working to locate and memorialize the site of every post-Civil War lynching in Shelby County.
So far, they've confirmed the location of 24 lynchings and they're seeking documentation on 12 more.
Thursday morning, they joined a 125th anniversary commemoration of the three victims of the People's Grocery lynching.
Sunday afternoon, they will collect soil samples from the site of those lynchings on behalf of a larger effort to identify the location of every lynching in the South from 1877-1950.
The marker along the Wolf River will be funded by the National Park Service.
It also will commemorate the June 1917 founding of the Memphis branch of the NAACP, formed after its national leaders investigated the Persons' lynching and found "no positive evidence" of his guilt.
The other marker will be placed on the westbound side of Summer Avenue just east of the Wolf River, a more conspicuous location.
It's the result of months of research, advocacy and fundraising by students in Dr. Marilyn Taylor’s Facing History and Ourselves class at Overton High.
The students raised $2,500 to pay for the marker. They're also working with the Shelby County Conservation Board to add a spur to the site from the Wolf River Greenway.
Students from Central High, Harding Academy, St. George's Independent School and Memphis University School also have been involved in the projects.
"This marker will let us see Mr. Persons for who he really was," Essence Davis of St. George's told the commission Thursday. "He was a person."
Both markers will be dedicated May 21.
Each marker does a good job of explaining what happened a hundred years ago.
But I wish each marker had room to add excerpts from an editorial published by the Memphis Press the day after the lynching.
"Public opinion burned Ell Persons at the stake yesterday," it said. "The majority approved. The minority kept silent, and silence gives consent...
"Let's realize that as citizens who may want society's protection we are members of that society and must make it strong.
"It cannot be weak for others and strong for us. It will be as strong or as weak as WE make it."
We need to be reminded what happened a hundred years ago, and why it matters now.
Reach columnist David Waters at david.waters@commercialappeal.com.