top of page

Suggested Scholarship

On The Memphis Massacre

A Massacre in Memphis: The Race Riot That Shook the Nation One Year After the Civil War 

By Steven V. Ash, 2013

"Not That Sort of Women" : Race, Gender and Sexual Violence during the Memphis Riot of 1866

By Hannah Rosen, 1999, from "Women, Families, and Communities: Readings in American History", second edition 

“Freedwomen, Sexuality, and Violence During Reconstruction”

By Catherine Clinton, 1999, from "Southern Women and the American Past", Duke University Press 

Massacre: 1866 and Battles Over How Memphis History is Told – The Memphis News 9:19 (May 7, 2016)

Listen:

'All Things Considered': Do the Words 'Race Riot' Belong on a Historic Marker in Memphis? (2016)

NRP Segment - All Things Considered
00:00 / 00:00

REVIEWS

Check out University of Memphis' blog for the "Memories of a Massacre: Memphis in 1866" Project for additional articles and blog posts 

“I'm a review. Click to edit me and add text from a critic who has evaluated you and your work.”

On Lynching and Racial Violence in the South 

“Judge Lynch Denied: Combating Mob Violence in the American South, 1877-1950” 

 By E.M. Beck, summer 2015, from "Southern Cultures", University of North Carolina Press 

“The Militant South – 1800-1861” (esp chapter 4)

By John Hope Franklin, Harvard University Press 

Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror 

From Equal Justice Iniative 

Memphis Burning 

From The Memphis Flyer, by Martha Park, 2016 

“I'm a review. Click to edit me and add text from a critic who has evaluated you and your work.”

-How did the racial make up of Memphis in 1866 set the stage for radicalized violence?

- How did the end of the Civil War affect Memphis specifically and create the conditions for a massacre?

- What sort of role did the Memphis newspapers place in the wake of the massacre? How do you think media should react to events like this?

- How is the Memphis Massacre an example of revolution and counter-revolution?

- How is the massacre an example of institutionalized racism?

- How has the Memphis Massacre been treated in Public Memory? How can cities teach and learn from difficult historical moments? Is it important for citizens to know this sort of history about the place where they live?

- How does the terminology of 'riot' versus 'massacre' affect public memory? 

​

Discussion Questions

​

bottom of page