The 150th Anniversary of the Memphis Massacre
Dear Friend,
Yesterday I attended the “The Memphis Massacre: Precursor to the 14th Amendment” luncheon hosted by the Memphis Bar Foundation at the Peabody in honor of the 150th anniversary of the Memphis Massacre, which occurred May 1-3, 1866. During the Memphis Massacre, mobs of white civilians and policemen stormed through neighborhoods of freed slaves and African American Union soldiers killing 46 African American men, women, and children. The Memphis Massacre is one of the most significant historical events of the Reconstruction-era and led to the passage of the 14thAmendment, which expanded the protection of civil rights to all Americans regardless of race, and other key civil rights laws, yet it has too often been no more than a footnote in our nation's history. It is important we remember and learn from our past, not erase it from our memories. This is why in 2008, I authored the first ever federal apology for slavery and the Jim Crow era.The need remains for our nation to acknowledge past injustices and take action to rectify their lingering consequences.
The keynote speaker at the luncheon yesterday was Bryan Stevenson, founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, AL and professor at NYU Law School. Mr. Stevenson is an outstanding attorney who has done great work in fighting against racial injustices and social inequalities in our criminal justice system, something I have worked hard on in Congress. Mr. Stevenson has also advocated for more historical markers, like the one placed this weekend for the Memphis Massacre, to remember those parts of history that have been shunned or forgotten.
Phyllis Aluko, one of the NAACP Memphis Chapter's board members, started the process of creating the first ever historical marker for the Memphis Massacre and fought for the language used on the sign. I am pleased that the U.S. National Park Service ensured that the sign refers to this dark time in Memphis’s past as what it is…a massacre, not a riot as it has been named by the Tennessee Historical Commission. Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland deserves recognition for placing the marker in the appropriate location of Army Park, since the massacre initially targeted African American veterans of the Union Army, and the Memphis Chapter of the NAACP deserves recognition for sponsoring it.
As always, I remain.
Most sincerely,
Steve Cohen
Member of Congress