Status: Site is undeveloped

Address: Roughly a narrow quarter-acre strip of land running southwest along former roadbed of Macon Road (no longer extant at this location but marked by modern power lines), from remains of bridge abutments on the east (carrying the road across the one-time Wolf River channel) to the current Wolf River location on the west; roughly bounded by Summer Avenue on the south, Wolf River on the west, Fletcher Creek on the north, and commercial property on the east; near 5400 Summer Avenue, Memphis.

Built: The period of significance is 1917

Architectural Style: Undeveloped wooded site

Original Function/Purpose: Suburban road and bridge

Date Listed on the National Register: August 7, 2024

National Register Reference Number Link: 100009136

 

History: Ell Persons was a Black man who was lynched on May 22nd, 1917 after being accused of raping and murdering Antoinette Rappel, a 15-year-old white girl. The girl’s body was found decapitated at the Wolf River Bridge on May 2nd, and suspicion quickly turned towards Ell Persons, simply because he lived about a half-mile away and was a woodcutter. Persons was not the first man arrested in the investigation but when he was arrested, he was subjected to brutal treatment and beatings from the police and is said to have confessed after 24 hours in police custody. Persons was then transported to prison in Nashville and the train was met with angry crowds at every station along the way. On May 21st, Persons was returned to Memphis for his arraignment and trial, but was captured by a lynching mob. The following day, the lynching site was publicized and an estimated 5,000 people collected to watch. Vendors and snack stands were set up and the gathering was described as having a carnival-like atmosphere. Persons was chained to a log, doused in gasoline, burned alive, and his body dismembered. His head and foot were later thrown onto Beale Street for Black pedestrians to see. Photos were taken of his decapitated head and printed on postcards. No one was ever arrested for the crime of Person’s murder, and the Rappel case was closed as well. On the 100th anniversary of the tragedy two historical markers were erected along Summer Avenue near the lynching site, one originating with students of Overton High School and the Shelby County Historical Commission, and the other with the NAACP and The Lynching Sites Project of Memphis. The historical location of the lynching is on the north side of the west end of the 1917 Wolf River Bridge, in or near the area shown in the photo above. (The photo was taken by Steve Masler and is from the Historical Marker Database, https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=105947, where it appears as Figure 5 showing the west bridge abutment.) This bridge no longer exists. Today it is marked only by the ca. 1920 concrete abutments that carried the bridge across Wolf River’s one-time location before the river was channelized westward some 600 feet ca. 1964. Plans are to add a spur to the Wolf River Greenway Trail to make it more convenient to reach the site.

Map:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

City Council District: 1

Super District: 9

County Commission District: 6