The Jangling Discords of Lynching Memorialization in Jackson, Tennessee: Dreaming the Rhetoric of the South

ABSTRACT

Current debates about the appropriateness of Civil War symbolism and toppling Confederate statues raise important questions about how to communicate the history of race relations in the South, and by extension the entire United States. As we confront our painful past and debate who and what to commemorate, we are (re)writing history and (re)creating realities in small towns and big cities through the Southern United States. This narrative ethnography traces the development and placement of a monument to lynching victims in a mid-size Southern city, revealing complex connections and divisions across geographic, temporal, and racial borders.

KEYWORDS:

• Narrative
• Southern regionalism
• lynching
• participatory critical rhetoric
• commemoration

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Local historians and activists have recently used historical records and maps to determine the exact location of Ballard’s murder. It was in a very rural part of the county. The process of obtaining a plaque from EJI is underway, and discussions are taking place about where to place this plaque to ensure its security and visibility.

2. In 1929 Joe Boxley was accused of raping the white woman who owned the land his family sharecropped. He was arrested, and as word spread a lynch mob formed outside the jail. He was transferred to another jail (ironically closer to the alleged crime scene, raising doubts about the sheriff’s motive). A mob as large as 2,000 by some accounts broke into the sheriff’s home and took the jail keys. Joe was hung from a tree four miles from the jail. A sign was posted instructing onlookers to leave his body on display until 4:00pm the following day. Photographs have been published of large crowds, including law enforcement and elected officials, coming to view his hanging body.

3. Jim Emison is a West Tennessee attorney and civil rights activitst. He has been investigating the June 20, 1940, civil rights cold case murder of NAACP member Elbert Williams, in Brownsville, Tennessee and has obtained an official State of Tennessee historical marker honoring Elbert Williams. Jim was instrumental in bringing about the memorial service on the 75th anniversary of Elbert Williams’s death. A team of experts assembled by Jim is working to locate Elbert Williams’s unmarked grave, and Jim hopes to persuade the United States Department of Justice to reopen its investigation into Elbert Williams’s death.

4. Details from county commission meetings are drawn from observation, interviews with attendees, and published commission meeting minutes.

5. For more information about the fight for historical justice in the region, visit the Tennesseans for Historical Justice website (www.tnhistoricaljustice.org). Tennesseans for Historical Justice’s mission is to uncover the truth about racial violence in Tennessee to achieve justice, conciliation, and healing.