Waters: A couple say farewell to Memphis after ‘grueling but healing’ work on the Lynching Sites Project

By , Special to The Daily Memphian Published: September 04, 2019 2:14 PM CT
<strong>Rev. Randall Mullins and his wife, Sharon Pavelda, with the Lynching Sites Project of Memphis, stand in front of the Ell Persons historic maker. The couple&nbsp;launched the project in 2016, with help from retired professors Tom Carlson and Margaret Vandiver, and retired oceanographer George Grider. Their goal is to locate and memorialize the site of every post-Civil War lynching in Shelby County.</strong>&nbsp;<strong></strong>(Patrick Lantrip/Daily Memphian)

Rev. Randall Mullins and his wife, Sharon Pavelda, with the Lynching Sites Project of Memphis, stand in front of the Ell Persons historic maker. The couple launched the project in 2016, with help from retired professors Tom Carlson and Margaret Vandiver, and retired oceanographer George Grider. Their goal is to locate and memorialize the site of every post-Civil War lynching in Shelby County. (Patrick Lantrip/Daily Memphian)

David Waters
Special to The Daily Memphian

David Waters

David Waters is Distinguished Journalist in Residence and assistant director of the Institute for Public Service Reporting at the University of Memphis.

Randall Mullins and Sharon Pavelda founded a project to identify and memorialize lynching sites in Shelby County, and helped create a community of supporters, from the National Park Service to the local NAACP, preachers and politicians, activists and academics.

Topics

David Waters Lynching Sites Project Randall Mullins Sharon Pavelda

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