The Red Record Lynching Sites Project

In this episode, we talk with Jen Bennie, a researcher with Lynching Sites Project and the host of the YouTube channel "Walk with History." She investigated a case of an unnamed man who was lynched in Memphis on Jan , 1851. In this case,  Black man shot the county clerk who declared his freedom papers a forgery as he attempted to board a boat headed north. It is the first recorded lynching in Shelby County and extremely rare to happen before the Civil War. Though more than two dozen papers reported the lynching, none mentioned his name. Jen's experience highlights the difficulty of locating key facts about these significant historical event because of the deeply rooted disregard for Black lives that continues today.

Expanding on what we discussed in episode 3, Dr. Beth Lew-Williams shares the similarities and differences between lynching in the American West and South, especially as it relates to violence against Asian-Americans. “The Chinese Must Go: Violence, Exclusion, and the Making of the Alien in America”

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-chinese-must-go-beth-lew-williams/1127017331

Dr. Margaret Vandiver breaks down the definition of lynching throughout American history and why it matters. Show notes: Lethal Punishment by Margaret Vandiver https://bit.ly/3C6l9j6 Invitation to a Lynching by Gene Miller
https://amzn.to/2Zcq9Er

On March 9, 1892, Thomas Moss, Calvin McDowell, and Will Stewart were lynched in Memphis, TN. The Black men had formed a co-op called People’s Grocery that had drawn customers away from a nearby white competitor. Their murders led famed journalist and women’s suffragist Ida B. Wells to investigate the true racist motivations of lynchings and she was exiled soon after because of her writings.

Learn more here: https://lynchingsitesmem.org/lynching/peoples-grocery-lynchings-thomas-moss-will-stewart-calvin-mcdowell

Original newspaper article, page 1: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SB_0vvoDDg_xPJyBSfdWQhjgmqnqUAFh/view?usp=drivesdk

Original newspaper article, page 2: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XzMwEaX7nMOOKYW1Pi3J-RsGpA-27Wn6/view?usp=drivesdk

Above article courtesy of Memphis, Shelby County Room in Memphis Public Libraries.

On March 9, 1892, Thomas Moss, Calvin McDowell, and Will Stewart were lynched in Memphis, TN. The Black men had formed a co-op called People’s Grocery that had drawn customers away from a nearby white competitor. Their murders led famed journalist and women’s suffragist Ida B. Wells to investigate the true racist motivations of lynchings and she was exiled soon after because of her writings. 

Learn more here: https://lynchingsitesmem.org/lynching/peoples-grocery-lynchings-thomas-moss-will-stewart-calvin-mcdowell

Original newspaper article, page 1: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SB_0vvoDDg_xPJyBSfdWQhjgmqnqUAFh/view?usp=drivesdk

Original newspaper article, page 2: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XzMwEaX7nMOOKYW1Pi3J-RsGpA-27Wn6/view?usp=drivesdk

Above article courtesy of Memphis, Shelby County Room in Memphis Public Libraries.

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