A letter from our Civil Wrongs coordinator

February 9, 2024

Dear Reader,

In journalism, sometimes the journey to telling a story can be just as interesting as the story itself.

And on Monday, Feb. 12, you can hear the story behind the latest season of our Civil Wrongs podcast. I’ll be at the Lynching Sites Project of Memphis monthly community meeting at 6 p.m. with people featured in the podcast.

It feels like a homecoming to me. My time volunteering with the Lynching Sites Project from 2018 to 2022 laid the foundation for me to start Civil Wrongs. 

Laura Kebede-Twumasi

It takes a lot of emotional stamina and vulnerability to stare down painful history. Without that, it’s impossible to shine a light on it with all the journalistic rigor we stand for at the Institute for Public Service Reporting. And I learned how to process that with the people of the Lynching Sites Project.

This group has been around since 2015 and aims to bring awareness to the two dozen lynchings that have happened in Shelby County through historical markers and community outreach. Our own David Waters was the first in Memphis to write about their impact.

So, I hope you’ll join us as we talk about how slavery endured well into the 20^th century and how echoes of this painful past continue today. You can join in person at the Barth House, 409 Patterson St., or virtually by registering for our Zoom webinar.

And if you haven’t done so already, you can catch up on the podcast or listen to the special two-part radio broadcast version that aired this week on WKNO-FM public radio.

It's as easy as following these links:

Listen to Season 3 of Civil Wrongs, "Nothin' for Our Labor," by clicking here.

Listen to WKNO-FM Part 1, "A Scheme That Exposed a Flaw in the Constitutional Ban on Slavery," here.

Listen to WKNO-FM Part 2, "Who Benefits Most From Work Therapy Programs?'' here.

Laura Kebede-Twumasi

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The Institute is led by director Marc Perrusquia, who worked nearly 30 years as an investigative reporter at The Commercial Appeal. He’s the author of the 2018 book “A Spy In Canaan,’’ which exposed civil rights photographer Ernest Withers’ secret life as an FBI informant and inspired the 10-part podcast “Ernie’s Secret” and the documentary film “The Picture Taker,’’ to be released on PBS in January.

The Institute’s associate director, David Waters, worked more than 30 years at The Commercial Appeal and another four at The Washington Post. He is revered as Memphis’s best news writer and is beloved for his work exploring faith, child poverty and education

Laura Kebede-Twumasi is a Report for America corps member. She recently hosted and wrote WKNO public television’s special “History, Justice and the Journalists” on unresolved civil rights crimes in the Memphis area. She previously covered education inequities for Chalkbeat Tennessee and local government and religion for the Richmond Times-Dispatch.