Ceremony Of Remembrance Commemorates Brutal Lynching One Hundred Years Ago

By: Brad Broders, LocalMemphis.com

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (localmemphis.com) – Exactly one century ago, Michelle Lisa Whitney’s great uncle – Ell Persons – died a brutal death, as a large crowd gathered to watch a white mob burn the woodcutter alive, decapitate, and dismember him near the Wolf River in what today is northeast Memphis.

Shelby County Historian Jimmy Ogle reads the marker by Overton High School students commemorating the centennial of the Ell Persons lynching.(Photo: Ron Maxey/The Commercial Appeal)

“The thing that really gets to me is the suffering,” Michelle said.

But Persons did not die in anonymity. His murder will forever be remembered and recognized. This afternoon, Memphians unveiled a marker that will be placed along the Wolf River – the site of Persons’ lynching. Another similar marker is on Summer Avenue near Shelby Oaks.

Rep. Steve Cohen attended today’s ceremony.

“If we don’t learn from history we are doomed to repeat it,” Congressman Cohen said.

Persons’ attack and murder came after he was wrongfully accused of the murder of a teenage student, Antoinette Rappel. Today one of Rappel’s descendants, Laura Wilfong Miller, reflected on the loss – and lack of closure – still felt generations later by two families.

“There were two murders and there was no justice in either situation, neither one, unfortunately, and so I hope it’s an event that can bring some peace to all of it,” said Laura.

See video of the ceremony here.

Learn more about Ell Persons’ lynching and the efforts of the Lynching Sites Project in Memphis TN, which is “part of a growing network of citizens who want the whole and accurate truth to be told about the history of Shelby County.” This group believes that “we can heal and grow in understanding when we face openly the history of racial violence in our community.”

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