A City Suspends Law Enforcement in 1917 to Execute a Harrowing Display of Vengeance

People from all walks of life conspire to vengeance after a 1917 murder. Law enforcement is all but suspended as an organized committee forms to abduct a suspect from police custody and stage a horrific public spectacle.   

The newest episode of Southern Hollows, Broad Daylight, is live. If you haven't already, listen to this stunning story about vigilantes and vengeance. ​

Now that you've heard the story, see the sights.

The murder of Antoinette Rappell (spelling at the time varied) dominated news coverage. (News-Scimitar 5/3/1917) ​

​The local newspaper not only didn't conceal the lynching plans, it in effect invited the city to come watch. (Commercial Appeal 5/22/1917)

​The death certificate of Ell Persons which, shockingly but not surprisingly, lists the cause of death as unknown. "The Deceased Ell C. Persons came to his death from unknown causes to this jury the Deceased being the confess [sic] Slayer of Antinet Rapel [sic]."

​Meet the new marker, and the students who made it happen. (Photo by Stinson Liles)

​Though both the Wolf River and Macon Road run different courses now, you can still get to the old bridge abuttment -- site of Ell Person's gruesome lynching. (Photo by Stinson Liles)

Go in-depth.

​
​Margaret Vandiver's book Lethal Punishment: Lynchings and Legal Executions in the South is a definitive resource for both the Persons case and the broader historical context.

The chapter on the Persons lynching draws on heavy research into news coverage from the time, making the volume a crucial one for anyone researching the events.
​

Learn more about the book.

Find out more.

Real-Time Coverage
​This supplement to the NAACP's Crisis was written by Field Secretary James Weldon Johnson. It's a real-time, 1917 account of the local coverage of the horrific events. 
​Read the whole document here. 

The Lynching Sites Project
​This growing web site is part of the project's mission to make sure "the whole and accurate truth to be told about the history of Shelby County." The project is a collaboration with the national effort of the Equal Justice Initiative to memorialize over 4,000 known lynchings in our country between 1877 and 1950.

And the credits.

Host/Producer:
Stinson Liles

Sound Design/Audio Engineer:
Justin Newton
 
Music from the Episode: 
"Cold Sober" by Kevin MacLeod
"Merry Go Slower," by Kevin MacLeod
"Funkorama," by Kevin MacLeod
"Giant Wyrm," by Kevin MacLeod
"Comfortable Mystery 2," by Kevin MacLeod
"Ave Marimba," by Kevin MacLeod
"Namaste," by Jason Shaw
"Relent," by Kevin MacLeod
"Amazing Plan," by Kevin MacLeod
"Remedy for Melancholy," by Kai Engel
 
Compositions and performances licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.
 
Sources: 
Vandiver, Margaret. Lethal Punishment: Lynchings and Legal Executions in the South. Piscataway, NY. Rutgers University Press. 2006.

Vandiver, Margaret. Correspondence, June 2017.

Supplement to The Crisis, Volume 14, No. 3. New York, NY. July, 1917.
​
Lynching Sites Project Memphis, www.lynchingsitesmem.org. June, 2017.
​

Last, but not least, some fine offers, just for you.