Stories, Space, and Sankofa: Frameworks for Commemorating Racial Terror

While this report focuses on the approximate site of Ell Persons’ lynching as a point of intervention, it recognizes that the history itself is not confined to a single location. Racial terror unfolded across a broader landscape that includes sites of abduction, transport, spectacle, and everyday life. As such, this project understands memory as spatially dispersed and continuously produced. The proposed memorial is therefore not conceived as an isolated object, but as part of a broader network of memory that extends beyond the immediate site. 

This report was produced in collaboration with the Lynching Sites Project of Memphis (LSP), an all-volunteer organization that has led efforts to document and acknowledge histories of racial violence in Shelby County. It provides a set of research-grounded recommendations, including site and contextual analysis, Request for Proposals (RFP) guidelines, non-negotiable design principles, and partnership and funding strategies. These recommendations are intended to center Ell Persons, name the violence enacted against him, and ensure that any future memorial does not obscure or soften the historical record.