On this day in 1917, Ell Persons, an African American man, was brutally lynched by a mob in Memphis, Tennessee. Accused without substantial evidence of a heinous crime, he was burned alive before a crowd of thousands in a carnival-like atmosphere. This atrocity highlighted the rampant racial violence and injustice prevalent in the early 20th-century American South. The lynching galvanized local African American communities, leading to the establishment of the Memphis chapter of the NAACP. A century later, in 2017, memorials were erected to honor Persons\’ memory and acknowledge this dark chapter in history, serving as a reminder of the ongoing struggle for racial justice.
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